The Army Structured Self Development Level 1 course, commonly called SSD1, is a prerequisite course for soldiers to attend Warrier Leader Course (WLC). Most Active Duty soldiers are expected to complete SSD1 during duty hours (yeah, right) or in their off time from work. It is just another part of that soldier’s duty pay.

Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers only get paid for the actual time they spend with their unit at drill and yearly training. This means that these soldiers may be compensated for completing certain Electronic Computer Based Courses while they are not in a pay status.

Each eight hours of successfully completed EBDL course work will earn a Soldier credit for completion of one paid ATA and one IDT Duty retirement point.

– HRC, Earning Retirement Points

Army SSD1 is listed as being worth 80 hours. According to the above quote from the HRC Website, you will get one paid Additional Training Assembly (drill period) for every 8 hours. This comes out to 10 extra drill periods of pay, and 10 extra Inactive Duty Training Retirement Points for the year.

Retirement Points for Army SSD1

This is a screen shot of my Retirement points detail record on Army Reserve Portal.

How to Get Paid for Doing Army SSD1

1. Register, log in, and complete Army Structured Self Development Level 1.
2. Print out your certificate of completion or your AARTS transcript with Army SSD1 on it.
3. Fill out DA Form 1380.
4. Submit Certificate or AARTS transcript and DA Form 1380 to your S1.

How Much Will I Get Paid?

How much you are paid is directly related to your rank and time in service. As stated above, you are paid 10 drill periods for completing Army SSD1. So if you look up your base pay in the Army Pay Charts, you will receive 1/3 of that amount.

How Long Does it Take to Complete Army SSD1?

Army SSD1 is worth 80 hours. This means that the Army believes it should take around 80 hours to complete. I can tell you from experience, it does not take nearly that long. I finished SSD1 in 2 days spending about 3-4 hours each of those days. It took me a maximum of 8 hours to finish in all. 10 days of pay for 8 hours? It is by far worth it for the pay to get it done. I received my LES for completing it withing 30 days.