Defense Civilian Training Corps, Certificate Programs Emerge to Develop Space Workforce

Academic Institutions Prepare to Meet Space Force’s Accelerating Human Capital Needs

Ms. Katharine Kelley, the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Human Capital with the United States Space Force, recently announced the military’s newest service was engaged in a pilot program called the Defense Civilian Training Corps (DCTC). While similar to the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), the DCTC is a congressionally mandated initiative to streamline university graduates into civilian careers at the Department of Defense (DOD). While the DCTC exemplifies how the government is initiating partnerships with academia from the top down, grassroots efforts like certificate programs at engineering schools are preparing to engage the Space Force from the bottom up. All together, these initiatives demonstrate how the Space Force can engage academic institutions to foster the workforce it needs among its civilian employees, active-duty Guardians and industry partners. 

“The Defense Civilian Training Corps program looks to increase the available pool of applicants for defense acquisition programs by partnering with civilian universities,” said B.T. Cesul, Ph.D., partner at Elara Nova: The Space Consultancy. “DCTC students receive a curriculum on defense acquisition that’s developed by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, while also facilitating an accelerated security clearance process and preferred access to civilian DOD positions upon graduation.”

According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly 770,000 civilians work in the DOD. But while these civilians make up around one-third of the DOD’s total workforce, they provide an outsized role in enabling military effectiveness. 

“Active-duty leaders inherently serve rotating positions to broaden their skills and facilitate career advancement, which makes them more effective leaders in higher positions of authority,” Dr. Cesul said. “The civilian workforce serves in roles like program managers and chief engineers to backstop the rotational leadership process with the continuity of processes, philosophy, strategy and technical competency that makes the DOD the premier warfighting force of the world that it is today.”

On-Boarding Challenges for Civilian Employees

Students interested in pursuing a national security career, however, often face challenges understanding the vernacular and technical jargon of the DOD and its bureaucratic processes.  This challenge extends to the DOD’s industry partners as well, as the on-boarding process can be a burdensome and time-consuming endeavor for students entering the workforce. 

But now, the DCTC program is streamlining the learning process for students at four universities: North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Purdue University, The University of Arizona and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. 

“The DCTC program integrates the defense acquisition process into the curriculum,” Dr. Cesul said. “This gives students the equivalent experience of the full-time training typically found when on-boarding to a job with the DOD. Students also get first-hand experience working in DOD offices through a summer internship opportunity, all while receiving scholarships and a stipend that offset the cost of tuition.”

Further, the DCTC program enables students to get a head start on receiving the clearance credentials relevant to their career. For the Space Force, which has inherited classification policies that the service is looking to modernize, the opportunity to jump-start the clearance process is also an advantage.

“There is a heavy demand signal for a cleared workforce to support the Space Force, because most of their activities are inherently classified based on legacy classification rules,” Dr. Cesul said. “Students entering the workforce want to be productive right away, and a security clearance process that takes months to years to complete may motivate highly qualified candidates to look for other career opportunities outside of the Space Force or in other industries. So the DCTC program presents a contractual relationship between students and the government to initiate the security clearance process without a defined billet or a designated employer.” 

Accelerating Space Workforce Demands

The streamlined clearance process for students will inevitably support the DOD’s industry partners, as well. Typically, commercial companies in the defense industrial base often favor hiring retired or former active-duty service members for their workforce to better position themselves for government contracts. 

“Commercial companies responding to proposals require a cleared, experienced and trusted workforce to win that government contract,” Dr. Cesul said. “But that also means there is a smaller pool of available candidates that meet this requirement for a clearance-credentialed workforce that is also familiar with the DOD’s acquisition process.”

Meanwhile, the demand signal for a space workforce continues to accelerate.

“We are going to have a shortfall in the space professional workforce, probably between 50,000 to 75,000 people per year starting in around 2030, based on the current graduation numbers and the current estimated job requisitions from both government and industry,” Dr. Cesul said. “This is going to create a cycle of competition over smaller human capital resources against an increasing number of problems – which will inherently raise costs for space programs.”

Certificate Programs for Space Operations

But efforts to develop the space workforce of the future go beyond the DCTC and other government initiatives, as grassroots efforts like space-relevant certificate programs are emerging at small universities.  

Before on-boarding as a partner at Elara Nova, Dr. Cesul helped initiate one such pilot program at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. 

“The Space Mission and Operations Certificate program aims to develop pragmatic skills for space operations requirements,” Dr. Cesul said. “The program introduces students with a technical engineering background to a fundamental understanding of space operations through labs on orbital mechanics, satellite orbit determination and digital twinning.”

To facilitate an experiential learning environment for its students in the certificate program, Lake Superior State University engaged the Homestead Mission Operations Center – a satellite ground station developed to support commercial and government research activities for space communications. 

“We used state of the art digital simulators to give students the opportunity to experience satellite communications with Homestead’s live satellite antennas,” Dr. Cesul said. “This lab experience parallels what a government employee experiences in places like the Air Force Lifecycle Management Center or Space Systems Command. Furthermore, a student can point to this certificate as a complement to their engineering degree, which will be an attractive narrative for potential employers in the commercial space industry.”

These pilot programs can also provide a valuable workforce counterpoint to the engineers and designers that traditionally come out of aerospace engineering programs at legacy four-year institutions. 

“These students without a traditional space background want more hands-on work at a terminal or ground station, operating a satellite or conducting field maintenance on a remote system,” Dr. Cesul said. “This certificate program provides a bridge between the system designer to the field technician necessary to actually operate these systems for defense programs, which is also a huge need in the Space Force right now.” 

The Need for Alternative Space Education and Training Programs

Now, the Space Mission and Operations Certificate Program is seeking to engage with the Space Force’s Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) to evaluate opportunities for integrating their program into existing Basic Military Training programs. 

“We designed the curriculum to replicate other training environments, and the ultimate goal for the certificate program is to get recognition from STARCOM that this program could be equivalent to one of their other introductory training programs,” Dr. Cesul said. “Then by replicating programs like this at other universities, we can increase the volume of students receiving relevant basic training. This opportunity demonstrates how the Space Force can address workforce needs through a variety of partnerships with civilian institutions, while not overwhelming the traditional training programs at Vandenberg or Colorado Springs.”

While Elara Nova is already embarking on support at the various elements of space: government, industry, financial and international partnerships, the space consultancy can also provide expertise to academic institutions developing the space workforce of the future.

“Elara Nova brings experience and expertise to the fight,” Dr. Cesul said. “The value proposition for these education programs is the ability to link real-life experience and expertise to program and curriculum development. Elara Nova can provide those pragmatic links from academia to training, so the government recognizes that there’s a trusted path to on-boarding a productive employee in a government office from day one.”

Elara Nova is a global consultancy and professional services firm focused on helping businesses and government agencies maximize the strategic advantages of the space domain. Learn more at https://elaranova.com/.