the nco professional development ribbon (established in 1981) is issued by the u.s. army for completion of any prescribed non-commissioned officer development courses. the first award of the nco professional development ribbon is issued for completion of the basic leader course (blc) (former titles of blc include: the "warrior leader course", "primary nco course", "combat army course", and the "primary leadership development course"). when a soldier completes additional schooling such as the advanced leaders course (alc), senior leaders course (slc), and master leader course (mlc), an award numeral is worn on the ribbon to denote subsequent satisfactory completion of those courses (2, 3, & 4 respectively). currently, the numeral "5" is authorized for graduation from the united states army sergeant major academy's 'sergeants major course'. graduates of the battle staff nco course, and the legacy first sergeant course, do not receive a numeral device for graduation from those courses. the highest numeral authorized for the nco professional development ribbon is "6" for graduates of the nominative leaders course (nlc). nlc is a two week strategic leader development course designed to prepare nominative command sergeants major (csm) and sergeants major (sgm) for their duties as csms for commanders of 1-2 star army commands, and staff section sgms at hqda level of responsibilities.