In general, up to 12 months of education may be counted towards meeting the experience standard for certification in your primary Acquisition Functional Area (AFA). However, there are a few important considerations:
(1) You may not use 12 months of education for the first year of acquisition experience to attain the Contracting Professional Certification – you must have at least 12 months of full-time experience applying a representative sample of the Contracting competencies in order to meet the minimum experience requirement for Contracting Professional Certification.
(2) Any time spent attending a degree-granting, accredited academic institution, beyond the 12 months of education that an AAW professional may count towards meeting the experience standard for certification in their primary AFA, does not qualify as acquisition experience to meet certification requirements.
For more information, please see the DACM Office’s Certification Policy at https://asc.army.mil/web/document/defense-acquisition-workforce-improvement-act-certification-policy-for-the-army-acquisition-workforce/
