JULY 2024 HOT TOPICS

ARMY ACQUISITION AWARDS

ARMY ACQUISITION EXECUTIVE (AAE) EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP AWARDS

Now is your opportunity to recognize the past performance of an individual or team who has clearly demonstrated exceptional mission accomplishment, selfless service to the United States, extraordinary and uncompromising professionalism, and true commitment to the personal and professional growth of others. Awards categories are below. The DACM Office is accepting nominations through Aug. 9.

• Acquisition Career Support Professional of the Year Award.
• Business Operations Professional of the Year Award.
• Defense Export and Cooperation Professional & Journeyman of the Year Award.
• Test and Evaluation Professional of the Year Award.
• Test Organization of the Year Award.
• Engineering and Technical Manager Professional of the Year Award.
• Digital Transformation Professional of the Year Award.
• Logistician of the Year Award.
• Product Management/Product Director Professional of the Year (O-5) Award.
• Project Management/Project Director Professional of the Year (O-6) Award.
• Product Management/Product Director Team of the Year (O-5) Award.
• Project Management/Project Director Team of the Year (O-6) Award.
• Contracting Professional of the Year Award.
• Contracting Unit/Team of the Year Award.
• Barbara C. Heald Deployed Contracting Civilian of the Year Award.
• Outstanding Grants or Agreements Professional of the Year Award.
• Innovation in Contracting Strategies Individual or Organization Award.
• Construction Services Professional of the Year.

For details and to submit a nomination, go to https://asc.army.mil/web/aae-awards/.

OPPORTUNITIES

NEW HIRES – ARMY ACQUISITION WORKFORCE COURSE NOW AVAILABLE

Have you recently joined the Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW)? If so, a new self-paced online course titled “Welcome to the Army Acquisition Workforce” is your first step in understanding what the AAW is, what your requirements as an AAW professional are, guidance on managing your acquisition career and a peek at the exclusive opportunities available to you. This course should be completed within the first few months of joining the acquisition workforce as it offers a dynamic overview of:

• The Army Acquisition Workforce.
• Training and certification standards.
• Tools and resources.
• Career models.
• Development and leadership opportunities.
• Staying connected.

To access and begin taking the course, navigate to the Army Training Information System (ATIS) Learning home page at https://learn.atis.army.mil/moodle.

• Chrome or Edge browsers are recommended.
• Go to https://learn.atis.army.mil/moodle.
• Login to EAMS-A-Single Sign-On (CAC login).
• Click the CATALOG
• Locate the Welcome to the Army Acquisition Workforce course in the list of Published courses, or enter the course name in the Search field, and click the search icon.
• Select the Register & Launch button, which will take you directly where you can launch the Learning Assignment(s) required for the course
• There is a downloadable resources guide included with the course. You are highly encouraged to download and save a copy of this resources guide for your records.
• Once you have closed the course topic, your completion will show up on your ATIS LEARNING MY CERTIFICATES page.
• Click the certificate File icon to view and download the course certificate of completion.

NOW OPEN: ACQUISITION LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE PROGRAM (ALCP)

The FY25 ALCP application window is now open.

The Acquisition Leadership Challenge Program (ALCP) is designed to develop leaders who value individual styles and behaviors by creating a leadership corps more capable of critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork management, collaboration and creative innovation. ALCP uses self-awareness as the key to leadership and diversity development. This is done through four levels of ALCP based on grade and experience (ALCP 1, 2, 3 and 4).

ALCP is available to top-performing civilian and military AAW professionals at GS-7 through GS-15, Functional Area 51 captains and majors, 51C staff sergeants and sergeants first class and term employees within the Science and Technology Reinvention Laboratories.

Nominations are submitted through your lead Organizational Acquisition Point of Contact (OAP). All ALCP program details, including application and nomination processes and policies and how to find your OAP, can be found on the ALCP webpage at https://asc.army.mil/web/career-development/programs/acquisition-leadership-challenge-program.

FY25 IDEAL PROGRAM – THERE’S STILL TIME LEFT TO APPLY

Now through July 31, applications are being accepted to the Inspiring and Developing Excellence in Acquisition Leaders (IDEAL) program. IDEAL is a civilian leader development program for new and emerging AAW supervisors at GS-12 and -13 (or broadband equivalent). It uses a competency-based approach focused on the Army leadership competencies identified in Army Regulation 600-100, Army Profession and Leadership Policy, and standard across all Acquisition Functional Areas. Those competencies include:

• Prepares self.
• Builds trust.
• Stewards the profession.
• Communicates.
• Develops others.
• Leads by example.
• Gets results.
• Creates a positive environment.
• Leads others.
• Extends influence.

Participants should possess clearly documented potential for supervisory or leadership positions. There will be one FY 2025 cohort, which will meet in Huntsville, Alabama, for three week-long resident sessions held over a period of approximately four months. Between sessions, participants will return to their workplaces to use newly learned skills and put into practice the concepts and competencies they studied during the resident sessions. The IDEAL curriculum includes classroom instruction, engagement with senior leaders, a site visit and group activities. For more details, go to https://asc.army.mil/web/career-development/programs/inspiring-and-developing-excellence-in-acquisition-leaders-ideal/.

“An added benefit to this cohort is the ability to network and hear lessons learned from junior leaders outside of my organization,” he said. “This allows me to provide new ideas to my teams to tackle tomorrow’s problems.” – Joseph Kornhoff, 2022 IDEAL graduate

CLOSING SOON – ACQUISITION TUITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (ATAP)

The ATAP application window will close on July 15. ATAP provides tuition assistance, including laboratory and technology fees, to eligible AAW professionals taking individual acquisition or business-related college courses OR pursuing an acquisition or business-related bachelor’s or master’s degree. Eligible applicants who already have a master’s degree can now apply for a second master’s degree in a business, technical or acquisition-related discipline.

ATAP is open to the following:

• Army Acquisition Workforce (AAW) civilians.
• Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 51 Contracting (51C) Noncommissioned Officers (NCOs).
• Flexible length and renewable term technical appointment employees in the Department of Defense laboratories designated as Science and Technology Reinvention Laboratories (STRLs).

For complete details, go to https://asc.army.mil/web/career-development/programs/acquisition-tuition-assistance-program/.

COMING SOON – RELEASE OF THE FY25 DEFENSE ACQUISITION UNIVERSITY (DAU) TRAINING SCHEDULE

We are excited to announce DAU’s FY25 training schedule will be released on July 18. We encourage employees who require their DAWIA certification to be proactive in registering to ensure timely certification compliance. To explore the available training courses, please visit the DAU iCatalog https://icatalog.dau.edu/ and click the ‘Check Schedule’ icon.

ACQUISITION FUNCTIONAL AREAS

SPECIAL REQUEST TO THE ENGINEERING AND TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT (ETM) WORKFORCE

The Army DACM Office asks all ETM professionals to complete the “end of course” survey for any DAU courses they take as part of their ETM Foundational or Practitioner certification requirements. It should only take a few minutes to fill out. These surveys help DAU to better evaluate and adjust course content, as needed, in order to make the training more useful and relevant to ETM workforce members and their jobs.