New alliance hopes to spur new talent in procurement field

For nearly a decade, there has been one constant lament from all sectors of the contracting universe: the need to dramatically beef up the acquisition workforce.

That crusade received a boost on Oct. 27, when the Office of Management and Budget directed civilian agencies to augment their contracting staffs by at least 5 percent by 2014. The directive, along with an ongoing hiring spree at the Defense Department, should open up thousands of new positions in the field of federal acquisition.

But where will the government find the talent to fill these new slots? A new coalition of federal acquisition professionals suggest the process should begin at universities across the country -- and with students who might not know the first thing about government contracting.

The Strategic Partnership on Acquisition Recruitment Coalition, or SPARC, is a widescale effort by five procurement-focused entities to identify and recruit candidates for the acquisition workforce. The group's initial priority is to convince universities to expand their curriculum to focus on procurement.

SPARC comprises representatives from OMB's Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Chief Acquisition Officers Council, Federal Acquisition Institute, Defense Acquisition University and National Contract Management Association. By leveraging their resources and skill sets, those member organizations plan to foster and train the next generation of acquisition professionals.

"The situation right now is that students do no know about federal contracting or federal acquisition," said Ed Rinkavage, national chairman of NCMA's university outreach and relations committee. "And because of that, when [students] graduate, they don't know about the opportunities that are out there."

SPARC is the brainchild of an afternoon meeting in July between Rinkavage and Joanie Newhart, senior procurement executive at the Transportation Department and chairwoman of the Chief Acquisition Officers Council's Human Capital Initiative.

Using President Obama's Open Government Initiative as a platform, the two conceptualized ways to not only grow the acquisition workforce but to create a steady stream of recruits for years to come.

The group will have its work cut out for it. During the past decade, the size of the acquisition workforce has remained stagnant although Defense has seen a recent uptick in some areas.

According to the Federal Acquisition Institute's 2008 annual report, the procurement workforce now includes 91,000 employees, with nearly 48,000 of them at civilian agencies. An increase of 5 percent at those agencies would add 2,400 acquisition professionals to the government's rolls.

In April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that 11,000 acquisition support positions on contractors' rolls would be insourced and converted to full-time federal positions. An additional 9,000 Defense procurement professionals would be hired by 2015, beginning with 4,100 in 2010. In total, the department's acquisition workforce would increase from 127,000 to147,000 -- its highest level since 1998.

It's not just new acquisition positions that will require recruiting efforts. The Federal Acquisition Institute's report revealed that in fiscal 2008, 15 percent of the acquisition workforce was eligible for retirement. In 10 years, that figure will climb to 54 percent, the report said.

The key to replenishing the acquisition workforce, Rinkavage said, is to get students interested early on in making contract management a career choice. But relatively few nongovernmental universities offer courses in acquisition-related fields, making it difficult to make inroads with the younger generation, he said.

Using the resources of the 140 NCMA chapters nationwide, SPARC plans to lobby universities and graduate schools that have existing relationships with the Defense Acquisition University or the Federal Acquisition Institute to begin offering courses that are equivalent to a federal Level 1 certification in contracting.

The coalition said it will focus on recruitment rather than selection and will not propose any changes to human resources policy, said Rinkavage, who also serves as director of acquisition services for Catapult Consultants in Arlington, Va.

The sales pitch will center on the number of positions that soon will be open to qualified and trained acquisition professionals in government, Rinkavage said. The group also might be able to offer scholarships and government internships, he said.

In fact, SPARC members don't mind if recent graduates choose an acquisition position in private industry -- the logic being that some time in their career those employees could enter the federal workforce.

Generating awareness is only half the battle, Rinkavage said. The coalition still must convince students of the merits of a career in acquisition. To do that, he said, "We need to sell the larger mission of the agency" rather than the day-to-day execution of contract management.

SPARC members will sign their charter on Nov. 6 at NCMA's annual Government Contract Management Conference. A panel discussion on the new project will follow.