TRAINING WITH INDUSTRY


TRAINING WITH INDUSTRY BRINGS NEW PERSPECTIVES to ARMY ACQUISITION


T WORDS OF EXPERIENCE


LTG William N. Phillips, the Principal Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology and Director of Acquisition Career Management, addresses participants in the Training with Industry (TWI) orientation May 17 in Arlington, VA. (U.S. Army photos by Robert E. Coultas.)


he U.S. Army Acquisition Corps (AAC) Training with Indus- try (TWI) program is a 10- to 12-month rotational opportu-


nity for acquisition officers to work and train at top civilian companies, with the objective of bringing back best business practices and translating their training into better Army acquisition outcomes in future assignments.


For FY12, the AAC TWI program saw a revival of sorts with a change in management. “We used to have a per- son on our TDA [Table of Distribution and Allowances] assigned to Acquisi- tion Branch assignment officers at HR [Human Resources],


running events,


civil schooling, and TWI,” said Scott M. Greene, Chief of the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center’s Acquisition Education, Training, and Experience Branch (AETE) in the Acquisition Career Development Division. “But when HR moved to Fort Knox, KY, there was no one running the program, and we went through a lot of hardships.”


Specifically, TWI went from 13 partici- pating companies to five in FY11. Now, however, “after hard work by the AETE Team,” the number is back up, to 10 in FY12, Greene said.


Currently participating companies for FY12 include Google


Inc., Microsoft


Corp., Coca-Cola Co., Cisco Systems Inc., EADS North America Inc., Lock- heed Martin Corp., Computer Sciences Corp., Intel Corp., General Dynamics Corp., and Boeing Co. The acquisition officers get a wide range of experience in their respective companies’ contract- ing, logistics, program management, and budget programs, and a different perspec- tive from the Army way of doing business.


SELECTION PROCESS Greene said the application process begins when the TWI applicant con- sults with his or her assignment officer, focusing on background and interests. Depending on that conversation, the acquisition officer may be a good match for more than one company.


Companies also provide input on what backgrounds they’re looking for,


for


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Army AL&T Magazine


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