STUDENTS ON A MISSION: The International Submarine Race returned to the David Taylor Model Basin in West Bethesda, Maryland, June 26-30, 2023. Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division hosts this biennial event to provide an avenue for high school and college teams to tackle the difficult challenges of submarine design, construction and operation, exposing aspiring engineers to careers within DOD. The DCTC pilot program will include real-world challenges with the same goal to gain future civilian acquisition leaders. (Photo by Aaron Thomas, Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division)
The Defense Civilian Training Corps pilot has begun, setting the stage for a new generation of DOD civilian leaders.
by Holly DeCarlo-White
DOD aims to strategically develop talent that can immediately contribute to the mission and adapt to challenges by partnering with select universities. Attracting and keeping skilled talent at the onset of their career is a challenge—especially in acquisition-related fields where competing opportunities exist in industry.
Through a partnership with academia, DOD is launching the Defense Civilian Training Corps (DCTC), a cohort-based pilot program to educate and develop students from various academic backgrounds with critically needed DOD skills and set them on a public service pathway into the civilian acquisition workforce. These scholars will enter DOD service with not only skills but a knowledge and appreciation of the overall mission and structure, which will empower them to make an immediate impact in support of the mission. Think of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program, but for civilians, with no basic training or uniform required. Through this investment, the Defense Department will gain new ideas and perspectives that can impact how DOD does business—shaping the Army acquisition civilian workforce of the future.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 established the Defense Civilian Training Corps “[f]or the purposes of preparing selected students for public service in Department of Defense occupations relating to acquisition, science, engineering, or other civilian occupations determined by the Secretary of Defense, and to target critical skill gaps in the Department of Defense.”
ROTC FOR CIVS: Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks visits ROTC cadets in August 2022 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue is a participating university in the Defense Civilian Training Corps pilot program. (Photo by Lisa Ferdinando, Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs)
FILLING GAPS
The Government Accountability Office reported in 2019 that skills gaps “played a significant role” in putting DOD at risk for management problems. This finding is not a new revelation. Research conducted by the MITRE Corp. presented the same defense acquisition challenges at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Annual Acquisition Research Symposium in 2017. MITRE’s research stressed the long learning curve required to master a career in defense acquisition. While online training and credentialing through the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) are in place, DAU does not have an avenue to apply the knowledge in practice on the job, where the real learning happens.
“It takes many years of experience to develop the depth and breadth of skills and acquire adequate knowledge to execute the acquisition process for all types of requirements,” the MITRE report said. “Acquisition professionals are expected to have a broad knowledge base, but those practical skills come only with hands-on experience.”
While military members could see a spectrum of acquisition roles by transferring every few years on active-duty assignments, civilians are not exposed to the same rotation opportunities that would develop their knowledge base through experience, for example, to acquire large weapon systems—a complex and regulated process compared to acquiring other general services or supplies.
In addition, historical know-how is exiting. The White House reported in 2022 that 30 percent of the federal workforce is eligible to retire within the next five years. “Without years of experience gaining the knowledge needed to successfully execute the variety of DOD acquisitions, or access to professionals with the requisite knowledge, young professionals will be at a significant disadvantage,” the MITRE report said. “Federal acquisition requires a unique skillset to navigate successfully so that government agencies can deliver systems and services that meet mission needs.”
Any effort to build the acquisition workforce of the future must align with the National Defense Strategy, which states, “[W]e will cultivate our talents, recruiting and training a workforce with the skills, abilities, and diversity we need to creatively solve national security challenges in a complex global environment.” And that workforce must “undertake a campaign of learning to identify the most promising concepts, incorporating emerging technologies in the commercial and military sectors for solving our key operational challenges.”
LAB WORK: Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks visits the Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories in August 2022 at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue is a participating university in the DCTC pilot program. (Photo by Lisa Ferdinando, Office of the Secretary of Defense Public Affairs)
ENTER DCTC
The Defense Civilian Training Corps pilot program seeks high-performing rising college juniors from a variety of majors interested in diving into DOD career fields. These students receive full tuition coverage for their remaining two years, a paid Defense Department summer internship and job placement upon graduation within their skill set and interests. Students are selected based on academic excellence, relevant experience, and an expressed interest in public service with the Defense Department. The universities circulated the opportunity through their student mailing lists, receiving enough response to close it and begin selection after just a few weeks’ time. In all, over 300 applications were reviewed.
The first pilot group, Cohort 0, began in August with 94 students selected from North Carolina A&T, Purdue University, University of Arizona and Virginia Tech with diverse interests not only in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), but also public policy, business administration, finance, political science and more.
The Acquisition Innovation Research Center (AIRC), part of a university-affiliated research center housed at the Stevens Institute of Technology, selected the four pilot universities from within its consortium of university partners. Karen D. Thornton, a research fellow at AIRC, said that during the DCTC pilot, the AIRC team will evaluate how the curriculum might be scaled to include more public land grant, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, senior military colleges and minority-serving institutions.
“[The four schools] are phenomenal partners and really going the extra mile to help us test our model,” Thornton said. “Each is very well situated with a vibrant ROTC program and existing DOD research grants. Some already have DOD presence on campus and organizations nearby from which we can bring in expertise to provide students with immersive experiences.”
Virginia Tech had the largest number applicants for the DCTC pilot program, 117 in just two weeks. DCTC was a natural partnership, according to Dr. Laura Freeman, deputy director of the Virginia Tech National Security Institute and research professor of statistics, who expressed students’ strong excitement to be a part of history in the development of the DCTC program. “Many have military service in their families, so they knew they wanted to go DOD,” Freeman said, “but many do not know you can serve as a civilian, too.” Virginia Tech is one of six senior military colleges in the U.S. with a robust ROTC military college.
“College-for-service does great things for diversity,” she said. “The thing I am excited about is the exposure of our students to interesting careers, exposing our students to a wide breadth of interesting pathways in the DOD is the hallmark of the program.”
The scholarship-for-service model will begin with Cohort 1 in 2024. DCTC’s Cohort 0 is the true experimental pilot group with no service obligation following graduation, though the hope is that graduates will accept and stay in the federal service positions they are offered. Students in Cohort 0 will play an active role providing feedback about the pilot program and building marketing and recruiting materials for Cohort 1 and beyond.
“We must constantly evaluate how our minimally viable product is being received by the end user,” Thornton said. “Looking to our DOD organizations to help us identify critical skills, student feedback, looking to internship supervisors and mentors, asking how are we doing. Are these students accelerated in acquisition systems?” The goal, she added, is that graduates will come to the Defense Department immediately able to make an impact because they not only understand the technology, but their role within the larger DOD mission. “It’s our theory that that will make them immediately impactful, versus a traditional student that needs to spend initial months getting their bearings in training classes,” Thornton said.
THE FUTURE: Through a partnership with academia, DOD is launching a cohort-based pilot program to educate and develop students from various academic backgrounds with critically needed DOD skills and set them on a public service pathway into the civilian acquisition workforce. (Image by Naassom Azevedo, Pixabay)
EDUCATION NOT TRAINING
The DCTC pilot program curriculum places importance on engaging students in continuous learning similar to the ROTC experience. “They graduate with a fundamental understanding of how DOD works, the building blocks of our democratic processes and the acquisition process so they have a bigger picture,” Thornton said. “They will also learn about the critical importance of partnering with the industrial base. Down the road when a DCTC graduate is doing audit work or their role is testing a product, they will understand who their end user is and where DEVCOM [U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command] sits in the organizational structure and they’ll appreciate all the people and collaboration it takes to achieve a mission-ready solution.”
“Our management principal is to encourage them to ask hard questions and share their ideas. Developing critical thinking skills so they understand how to apply it in complex organizations,” Thornton said. “Innovation doesn’t mean changing everything, it means identifying where there are pockets of agility and helping the students be part of the effort making it a sustainable and a scalable approach.”
DOD organizations and partners interested in hosting DCTC interns during the eight-week summer period will soon be invited to submit proposals to the DCTC team for selection to ensure the organization not only can accommodate but immerse, support involvement in real-life projects for hands-on learning experiences, and have the time to provide communication and feedback throughout the process.
“We want to make sure every internship experience is student-focused to ensure our scholars learn by engaging with real-life national security problems with the guidance and support of mentors,” Thornton said. “If you build a supportive community, it becomes easier for them to learn from their mistakes, evolve and thrive—and ultimately, they will want to stay. The DOD organizations that serve as internship hosts will be key allies in helping us further iterate on the curriculum to ensure we are developing graduates with the skills and talents they need to fill critical gaps in their organizations. The DCTC pilot program is providing an investment that responds to the recommendations of the Defense Business Board’s 2022 report on talent management, by changing how DOD views the civilian professional and prioritizing their development.”
DCTC is working with a select, diverse set of pilot DOD organizations to sponsor summer internship projects. The opportunity to hire the scholars post-graduation will be open to all DOD organizations.
EVENT LAUNCH: To mark the launch of DCTC, an event was hosted by Tanya Skeen, acting assistant secretary of defense for acquisition, on June 8, 2023, at the Pentagon with over 50 senior DOD and university officials in attendance. (Photo courtesy of Acquisition Innovation Research Center)
CONCLUSION
The Defense Civilian Training Corps pilot program provides an avenue for the Defense Department to capture high-performing talent early on by investing in students in partnership with academia to fill critical skill gaps and sustain vital acquisition career fields that support our warfighters. The DCTC pilot program curriculum will grow a more informed, capable and diverse acquisition workforce that will bring in new ideas and provide an impact on day one having a greater understanding of the overall DOD mission, acquisition career paths and organizational structure.
DCTC scholars benefit through college scholarships, experiential classroom learning, hands-on critical thinking projects, internship experience in DOD offices, labs and command headquarters, and DCTC will facilitate federal civilian service job placement following graduation. With a supportive network throughout the program and thereafter, DCTC will set graduates up for success to become valuable contributors in the future defense of our nation.
For more information, go to https://dctc.mil.
HOLLY DECARLO-WHITE provides contract support to the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, as a writer and editor for Army AL&T magazine for SAIC. Previously, she was a public affairs specialist at U.S. Army Garrison Stuttgart, Germany. She holds a B.S. in merchandising management from the Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York and has more than a decade of communications and operations experience in the private sector.
