MINDING THE GAP


What kinds of skills does the acquisition workforce need? A new assessment and leadership concept aims to find out.


by Jacqueline M. Hames T 110


raining and development are critical to the health of the Army Acquisition Workforce’s 13 career fields. But finding out where the workforce is lacking in competencies—skills and knowledge—can be somewhat difficult, as workforce members from two program executive offices and the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC) discovered during a Novem- ber town hall meeting with Dr. Bruce D. Jette, the Army acquisition executive, at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.


An acquisition professional asked, “Is there a database or something of the sort where we can understand the skills gaps in the Army?” Te short answer is no, but there is something in the works.


MANAGING DATA AND PEOPLE Te town hall with Jette, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, covered a wide range of topics on the state of Army acquisition. One of the themes of Jette’s talk was the Army’s need to manage data better, which this particular question emphasized. Jette deferred to Craig A. Spisak, Army director for acquisition career management (DACM), for an answer on the workforce’s skill gaps.


“Te problem,” Spisak said, “is that while we do have a fairly robust database of sorts, a source database for the majority of personnel information, it doesn’t allow us to drill down into a lot of things you want to know, like the competencies that are second- and third-order below. So, I know where contracting people are, I know whether or not they’re certified in contracting, but … the individual competencies a certain person has, we don’t collect that data today in a meaningful way, so that’s where the challenge lies.”


Army AL&T Magazine


Spring 2019


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