Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic officials were notified Oct. 26 that the center was selected to receive the 2012 Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Workforce Development Gold Award for large organizations (more than 500 employees). The award recognizes SSC Atlantic as a Department of Defense acquisition, technology and logistics
organization that has made exemplary contributions to career-long development of its acquisition workforce, promoting the goal of a high quality, agile and ethical workforce. The award program also identifies best practices for other USD (AT&L) organizations to follow.
Maintaining and enhancing previous learning and development programs and being proactive in providing employees with additional career-development activities enabled the center to advance from recognition as a silver award recipient in 2011 to achieving gold status in 2012.
The center's total force management competency leads submitted the award application which described the competency aligned organization/integrated product team (CAO/IPT) structure used by SSC Atlantic, and stated that SSC Atlantic’s fiscal year 2012 tactical training plan and budget exceeded $7.3 million and included tuition assistance, graduate programs, process improvement,
leadership development programs, development of business processes, and specialized training focused on building capability to deliver new technologies to customers.
More than $1 million of that budget was invested in academics and $1.5 million was expended (as of the Aug. 1 application date) on labor costs for the acquisition workforce to attend training. More than 500 employees have pursued undergraduate and graduate coursework with an investment exceeding $6 million since fiscal year 2008, and the number of employees who have earned degrees has increased to a historic high of more than 65 percent of the workforce.
A strategic partnership with Defense Acquisition University (DAU) resulted in more than 17 weeks of onsite courses being offered to personnel, which greatly reduced travel costs since no DAU campus is within commuting distance of Charleston and more than 1,500 members of the AT&L workforce were previously required to travel to obtain classroom training.
Other initiatives to provide learning and development opportunities to employees, supervisors and executives, included new employee onboarding and orientation sessions, the mid-career leadership development program, executive coaching, the council of supervisors, leadership development workshops, telework, employee yes/no surveys, strategic communications, the IPT lead accreditation program, a variety of mentoring programs, new professional programs, and community outreach focused on science, technology, engineering and math careers. The award was presented to SSC Atlantic Executive Director Christopher Miller at the USD(AT&L) Acquisition awards ceremony Dec. 17 at the Hall of Heroes in the Pentagon.
Capt. Mark Glover, Commanding Officer for SSC Atlantic said, "I am proud to command an organization with such a talented workforce that every day makes IT (information technology) count for the warfighter and the nation."
Congratulations on successfully “going for the gold!”
SSC Atlantic rapidly delivers and supports solutions that enable information dominance for naval, joint, national and coaliton warfighters. The organization is a leading edge Navy engineering center that designs, builds, tests, fields and supports many of the finest frontline advanced command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems in use today, and those being planned for the future. SSC Atlantic’s headquarters are located in Charleston, S.C., with major detachments in Hampton Roads, Va., New Orleans, La., Washington D.C. and several other Southeastern U.S. locations. SSC Atlantic overseas locations are in Europe,
the Middle East and Antarctica.
Diane Owens is the employee newsletter editor for SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic.