The Department of Defense is investing several billion dollars to re-build, train and educate its acquisition workforce, and it expects a return on its investment.
Rebuilding the workforce will be accomplished through a mix of newly created government jobs and in-sourcing of acquisition and acquisition support services currently performed by contractors.
Defense acquisition workforce professionals are required to obtain 80 continuous learning points every two years. The annual DoD Acquisition Insight Conference included town hall style briefings and focused breakout seminars on topics ranging from performance based logistics to combat mission support and services contracts. Participants earned 16 continuous learning points.
DoD is making a significant investment in growing and training its in-house acquisition workforce by 20,000 over the next five years, said Shay Assad, director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy. The growth will be relatively evenly split with about 10,000 contracting and contract oversight positions and an equivalent number divided up between program management, logistics management, acquisition management and systems engineering. He noted DoD spends more on contract services than on weapons systems and information technology equipment combined.
