The Early Career Workshop was hosted by Under Secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment, the Honorable Ellen Lord. The workshop examined the issues within defence acquisition and what is going well by engaging with a subset of the workforce.
Topics covered included work-life balance, accountability, and the initiatives available to workers. The 19 participants represented 38,000 members of the early career acquisition workforce.
Under Secretary Ellen Lord said: “Each of you represent the finest in DOD’s acquisition workforce. Your involvement in change and your recommendations are exactly what we need moving forward.”
José Gonzalez, Acquisition and Sustainment Director, Human Capital Initiatives, said: “This workshop is only a first step, we plan to deliberately engage this sector of the workforce through additional workshops and other opportunities. The participants will continue as a cohort and an extension of the HCI office to lead change initiatives and to assess broad acquisition reforms.”
Feedback from the participants showed a desire to have a greater role in shaping the future of defence acquisition. The workshop and outbrief to the senior leadership was done with that opportunity in mind.
The workshop will serve as a change initiative platform for the early career workforce (5-10 years in service), and launches a continuous engagement strategy that purposely involves them in shaping their role in the future of acquisition. The participants were ‘by name’ selected by their Service Acquisition Executives and 4th Estate leadership to participate in the workshop.
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