TOPICS
TOPICS
Congress weighs program to groom Defense civilian leaders
As the Defense Department gears up to hire thousands of new workers -- including 20,000 contracting specialists -- Congress is considering a program to help the Pentagon recruit and train thousands of future civilian leaders.
The program -- called the Department of Defense Civilian Leadership Program -- would select candidates from inside the department as well as the private sector for special training and assignments designed to help the government develop a "new generation" of civilian talent. Under the proposal, included in the 2010 Defense Authorization bill (S. 1390), the Pentagon could select up to 5,000 people each year for the program.According to a Senate Armed Services Committee report on the authorization bill, the program is aimed in part at helping Defense add thousands of new acquisition professionals.
In April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the department would convert 11,000 contractors to federal positions and hire an additional 9,000 employees to beef up its acquisition workforce. The proposal has met with some skepticism -- expressed at a July House hearing -- about the logistical challenges of hiring so many new acquisition professionals so quickly.
"Acquisition experts have informed the committee that the department's needs extend beyond contracting officials to systems engineers, development planners, software engineers, cost estimators, developmental testers and other highly skilled professionals," the committee's report stated. "They have emphasized that the quality of the new employees is at least as important as the quantity."
The report said the program will be a tool for recruiting "individuals with academic merit, work experience and demonstrated leadership skills necessary to build the most effective acquisition workforce."
The program is not included in the House-passed version of the authorization bill. The Senate approved its version in July, and now the measure awaits a conference committee to reconcile the two versions.
Applicants for the program would be chosen by the Defense secretary based on "academic merit, work experience and demonstrated leadership skills." They would receive special training on the job at entry- and mid-level positions. As their careers progressed, participants who demonstrated "outstanding performance" would be given priority for management and technical positions.
Steven Schooner, a professor at The George Washington University Law School and co-director of the school's Government Procurement Law Program, endorsed the concept of the program. "I take it as a good sign that the Senate is not satisfied by the happy talk coming out of the Defense Department about what they're going to do to fix the acquisition workforce," He said. But Schooner expressed concern that the program might not receive enough attention from Defense if implemented.
COMMENTS
- Kudo's to DoD for finally training management from the bottom up. I certainly hope they look from within the ranks too. So many good employees have worked their way up to GS-11/12 levels through hard work, dedication, education, and a few helping hands from higher ups (not many, but the few I had were outstanding examples of what management should be). It's great to start from the ground up, but lets not forget those ready to join the ranks of management now - they need training too and it's pretty hard to get into with regards to how to LEAD (not manage), and how to COMMUNICATE (not talk), and most of all how to LISTEN to the employees under you. The current management here is declining management training left and right - good ACQ Certified employees with the ability to lead, but it poses a threat to them. Sad - very sad. But kudos to DoD for trying! M E D Posted September 29, 2009 7:20 AM
- Mr. Michael J. Smith, MPA, I notice you post lengthy rebuffs and complaints during working hours. . . . As a prior vet who also worked to put myself through school at a REAL university (not online), IMHO, I would suggest you stop looking in the review mirror at your past accomplishments, invest your energy in the difference you CAN make (which, I'm sure, does not include ranting on a blog), stop blaming others when you're passed over for promotion, get to work, and learn how to play with others in the sandbox. Nothing personal, but it's not all about you. One final thought: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" - Theodore Roosevelt Brandon Baldwin Posted August 31, 2009 11:49 AM
- Actually, Danny, I earned competitive acceptance into and attended undergraduate, graduate and law school at 'real' (READ: NOT ON-LINE DIPLOMA MILLS) universities at personal expense while I was working full-time as a blue collar skilled trades journeyman pipefitter in the US shipyard industry. And as I said before, I am a vet. I'll take back seat to no one, no one at all Danny, about the issues I raise. You see, Danny, I and legions of others who care about matters in the public sector beyond mere self, others who have gained federal and private sector employment on merit after genuine competitions (as opposed to being the DOD one agency careerist selection official's military 'buddies') outside of the insular confines of mere DOD orgs, know darn well about the preposterous and ludicrous levels of 100% self-financial driven inbreeding that has been and continues to be rampant in almost every single corner of DOD. The mere notion of attempting to define excellence as existing within only and merely among current or prior DOD staffers, including retired enlisted or officer members, individuals who opted to join and serve in the military 20 and 30 years ago (or longer) during peacetime, member who served their grateful Nation in admin support roles in quite safe and clean and comfortable air conditioned military offices in Hawaii, Italy, California, Guam, and other welcoming climes, members who were sent to these warm climes at US taxpayer expense and all the while being provided with extremely generous salaries and unheard of anywhere else on planet earth other than DOD - $2-3,000 a month 100% tax free housing allowances, retired members who opted to join 20/30 years ago principally if not exclusively to avoid the minimum wage lives they were facing, is laughable, quite literally laughable on its face, Danny. At the end of the day, Danny, this self-validating, entitlement-festering, mediocrity-inbreeding 'we take care of out own (at the US taxpayer's expense via sham supposed external to DOD recruitments that maintain near 100% levels of inbreeding within and among merely current of prior DOD staffers)" practice is fully and indefensibly representative of the WORST of public administrative management. PERIOD. And again, Danny, these observations about the unfortunate truth of the matter is coming from a vet. Michael J. Smith, MPA Posted August 28, 2009 12:34 PM
