CHESTER, Va. - The Defense Contract Management Agency officially opened the new learning campus at a former agency transition management office, the Logistics Resources Management building, in Prince George, Va., March 1.
Jim Russell, DCMA deputy director, officiated the ribbon cutting ceremony at the LMR building.
According to Li Lammert, DCMA Learning Center lead facilitator, the DLC houses four permanent staff, two facilitators, one training coordinator and one master scheduler. However, during orientation, held the first two weeks of each month, the campus can have as few as 15 new employees to as many as 44.
New employee orientation is available for new on-board 852 funded journeymen and Keystones. This training covers many topics including and overview of the Department of Defense and DCMA, creating and managing electronic Individual Development Plans, working with the Civilian Training Management System and Skillport to obtain Defense Acquisition University courses required for Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act certification, federal benefits and future leadership and development opportunities.
According to Lammert, guest speakers teach diverse, but relevant, classes on the performance labor accounting system, contracts overview, ethics, information technology, customer service organization, electronic document access, electronic document workflow, wide area workflow, equal employment opportunity and diversity, the anti-terrorism/force protection level I training, the defense travel system, and the collective bargaining agreement and American Federation of Government Employees.
“We supplement these areas with discussions on chain of command, political savvy cross-generational communication, and virtual teaming,” said Lammert. She said students are given an exam on the DoD/DCMA overview to ensure they understand the mission, vision, and core values of the agency and the organizational structure and functions of headquarters, regions, centers and the contract management offices.
“Most of our orientation students are from the field with a few center and headquarters’ employees attending as well,” said Lammert.
The agency is benefitting from this campus being in one location, because in the past there have been as many as four different locations for DLC orientations. “Having the orientations at Fort Lee will allow for the DCMA leadership to become a part of the curriculum for each orientation,” said Lammert.
Lammert said the students will benefit by having the training in a single location, having the same facilitators teaching like classes, so the experience is generally the same for each student. The students also benefit by having a training location dedicated to them only – no more borrowing conference rooms, working off the DCMA network, and no more leasing of classroom space.
“The agency benefits overall by ensuring our new employees – journeyman or keystones have a complete understanding of the requirements of their training and development program.
"After the orientation, students can go back to their home office and have an intelligent discussion with their supervisors on the next two-to-three years of DAU training, on-the-job training, and developmental/rotational assignments,” said Lammert.
For some students, the DLC orientation represents the first time they've received comprehensive information on signing up for their benefits. Although supervisors want to help new hires to the agency with getting their benefits in place, “Many supervisors have been federal employees for a long time; and some don't remember how to sign up for these benefits,” said Lammert. This course makes up for this knowledge shortfall.
Lammert said other supervisors are new to the training arena and are thankful for the information the orientation provides on developing a multi-year individual development plan. “Students now have a quality learning environment dedicated to them,” she said.