Warriors need critical skills that make them “competent, qualified, agile, professional, aggressive, innovative, risk-taking, apolitical,” Secretary Hegseth told senior officers last month. He could just as well have been talking about the department’s civilian acquisition workforce, who are vital to efforts to achieve strategic advantage over our adversaries.
Developing these skills must start long before a new employee arrives at DOD. That’s why we created the Defense Civilian Training Corps , a scholarship-for-service program that helps undergraduate students learn the skills that will help them succeed as acquisition professionals. The Pentagon launched DCTC in 2023 to prototype a college-campus talent-development model; it currently operates at University of Arizona, North Carol