1st annual DoD AT & L Workforce Development Awards: Air Armament Center takes the Gold.

The first annual DoD AT & L Workforce Development Awards were presented to three organizations on Nov. 16 during the PEO/SYSCOM Commanders' Conference held at Fort Belvoir, Va. Acting Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) Michael Wynne authorized the award in May 2004 as an annual event designed to recognize field organizations that have made a profound and lasting contribution to career-long learning and development of their employees. The award program also serves to capture best practices for other organizations to adopt.

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"AT & L's success is all about people. The Workforce Development Award is a critical component of my vision--an agile, motivated workforce," said Wynne. "I am determined to create an environment where we can maintain a world class AT & L workforce.... We must ensure that all of our field organizations are world-class learning organizations. Today we are recognizing some of our best learning organizations."

Twenty-two organizations were nominated for achieving excellence in fostering learning and development, to include mentoring, continuous learning, career counseling, job rotation and shadowing, executive coaching and leadership development. A panel of seven educators and professionals from academia, industry, and corporate learning institutions evaluated and scored each application. The three winners, Wynne noted, shared some common threads: a focus on employee development; a strategic approach to career learning; strong leadership, and appropriate resource allocation of time and money.

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The Gold winner was the USAF Air Armament Center (AAC), Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., for new and innovative work-force development initiatives such as the Air Armament Academy, Leadership Enhancement and Preparation Program, Training Days/Training Weeks Policy, along with active internship programs, job rotation, job shadowing, career counseling, and supervisor/leadership development has transformed AAC's culture into a strong learning organization.

The Silver winner was Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), Washington Navy Yard, D.C. NAVFAC was commended for initiatives such as its Human Capital Strategic Planning Process, Establishment of a Facilities Engineering Career Field, and a College Credit Bank Transcript Service.

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The Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI), Orlando, Fla., was the Bronze winner, recognized for initiatives such as total employee development (a paperless process that has reduced the use of DD Form 1556 from 2,100 a year to 50); Employee Development Plan, Leadership Education and Development Course, and Creativity Day Camp.

Congratulations to the 2004 Award winners. Their "best practices" will be highlighted in detail in the next issue of Defense AT & L magazine. In 2005, we anticipate many more applicants to compete for these awards. The guidelines for next year's competition will be posted on the DAU Web site in February 2005 at <www.dau.mil>.