The Department Develops Its Own Professional Intelligence Workforce
The Department and the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) have come a long way since I arrived in late 2005, when we could only provide our workforce with external training classes offered by the Intelligence Community (IC). Our Intelligence Training Branch has grown since then, and has begun to develop homeland security-centric courses for our DHS intelligence personnel and our state, local and tribal partners at our own Homeland Security Intelligence Training Center in Ashburn, Va. In fact, the Training Branch was recently a recipient of the Secretary’s award for team excellence.
Professional development opportunities are essential to recruit, develop and retain a cadre of intelligence professionals, who possess standardized knowledge and competencies across the DHS intelligence enterprise. These professional development opportunities help to build a common culture among our departmental intelligence workforce; and also to provide for enhanced collaboration among the intelligence offices of the department’s components.
To support DHS’ diverse intelligence mission, I directed the Training Branch in late 2005 to begin a number of strategic planning activities to strengthen departmental intelligence capabilities. One key area requiring substantial attention is the training and development of the Department’s entry-level intelligence professional workforce. To that end, the Training Branch has developed (or is in the process of developing) the following courses:
- Principles of Intelligence Writing and Briefing
- Critical Thinking and Analytic Methods
- Vulnerabilities and Threat Risk Assessment
- Intelligence Enterprise/Intelligence Community Overview
- Law Enforcement Intelligence Operations
All of the above intelligence training courses are less than one week in length and are delivered by well-qualified instructors. They are open to personnel in the DHS intelligence enterprise and to our state, local and tribal partners. These courses, set within a homeland security-centric exercise framework, make up our five-week, entry-level Basic Intelligence and Threat Analysis Course (BITAC), which confers a Homeland Security Intelligence Officer designation. The BITAC has the added benefit of offering unprecedented opportunities for collaboration and networking across the DHS intelligence enterprise. I am pleased to say that a study that compared BITAC to the national Intelligence Community’s Analysis 101 course found that BITAC met the analytic standards of Intelligence Community Directive Number 203.
To date, the Training Branch has offered five iterations of the five-week course, reaching 110 students from across the DHS intelligence enterprise, including state and local personnel, and even a student from the Canadian government. The first BITAC was piloted in January 2007, and the most recent was completed in November 2008. BITAC has proven popular with the enterprise components, and I&A has received rave reviews for the guest speakers, the curriculum, and the instructors. I’ve had the pleasure of addressing several of the BITAC graduations, where I had the opportunity to meet and talk with the young DHS intelligence officers.
As a follow-on to BITAC, I am proud to say that we completed our first pilot of the Mid-career Intelligence and Threat Analysis Course (MITAC) on Sept. 26, 2008, with 16 journeyman-level students. MITAC was developed as a response to a request from DHS intelligence enterprise chiefs for an enterprise-wide training program to meet the needs of our mid-career intelligence workforce. MITAC is the next step in a DHS intelligence enterprise professional’s career development. Unlike BITAC’s modular format, this course is designed in a block format around critical leadership skills, as follows:
■ Block 1 – Collaboration
■ Block 2 – Best practices
■ Block 3 – Critical thinking
■ Block 4 – Mentoring and communication
■ Block 5 – Applications and exercises
I am pleased to take this next step in establishing a uniform training regimen for all department intelligence professionals. We are looking forward to holding three more BITACs and three MITACs in FY 2009. In addition, another next step following MITAC will be the Senior Intelligence Leaders Course, which is planned for the future.
In addition to training BITAC and MITAC at our Homeland Security Intelligence Training Center, we have also taught 30 analysts in Critical Thinking and Analytic Methods (CTAM) and Principles of Intelligence Writing and Briefing. The five-day CTAM course teaches the basic analytical methods and critical thinking skills required to meet the IC Analytic Standards in a collaborative, homeland security-centric environment. For FY 2009, I am pleased that we will be able to offer four more CTAM courses and two more Principles of Intelligence Writing and Briefings courses.
We are also working to implement the intelligence training provisions from the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 through courses like the BITAC and MITAC in order to establish a common intelligence culture and intelligence-officer skill sets throughout the department. In addition to these two programs, for example, we have partnered with the DHS Office of Security to provide department employees with platforms to develop an understanding of critical types of information and intelligence that can enhance their on-the-job effectiveness.
Our state, local and tribal partners who wish to take any of our courses, such as BITAC and MITAC, are provided assistance from the Grant Programs Directorate within the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These courses are provided at no cost to our partners, and the Grant Programs Directorate may provide grants that cover the cost of travel. This has provided a wonderful opportunity for our state, local and tribal partners to develop and further their analytical skills.
We have also instituted Intelligence Oversight training for everyone (federal employees, contractors, and detailees) who is assigned or detailed to I&A. This is mandatory training to ensure that the constitutional rights and privacy of U.S. persons are protected. In addition, we also have a dozen other web-based training opportunities in such diverse topics as Ethics, Computer Security, Sensitive Compartment Information Refresher, Operations Security, and Equal Employment Opportunity that have been made available through the Training Branch’s registrar desk. These courses are mandatory for I&A personnel, but are available for anyone in DHS who wants to take Web-based professional development courses.
The natural complement to an effective training program is an aggressive effort to retain talented employees through professional development programs. I&A participates in several formal programs, including the joint Intelligence Community duty assignments program and the DHS intelligence rotational assignment program. We are also providing opportunities for our people to take high-caliber leadership and management courses, to participate in Office of Personnel Management and IC professional development training, and to pursue a bachelor’s and master’s-level degree program. I&A has an excellent relationship with the National Defense Intelligence College, which accepts DHS employees for pursuit of a Bachelor of Science in Intelligence or a Master of Science of Strategic Intelligence. These are outstanding educational opportunities that are provided at no cost to I&A federal employees.
I am also enthusiastic about offering the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholarship Program to new employees. In the past two years, I&A was granted 10 such scholarships annually for our employees who are new (within two years) to the IC. These scholarships are worth $25,000 each and can be used to finance continuing education or to pay off existing college loans. This has proven to be a wonderful tool to retain good employees.
We look forward to improving upon our successful training program this year and to continue developing I&A’s employees professionally because we understand that only well-trained professionals can produce the intelligence our leaders need to keep America safe.
Charlie Allen
Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis and Chief Intelligence Officer
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