By Anastasia Obis | Federal News Network
The Space Force, in partnership with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, is piloting a program similar to the Reserve Officer Training Corps but for civilian careers.
The program, now in its second year, allows college students at participating universities, including North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Purdue University, the University of Arizona, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, to get firsthand experience working with the Space Force and learn what it means to be a civilian employee in the newest military branch.
Unlike the Reserve Officer Training Corps program, which trains college students to become commissioned officers, the pilot program guarantees students a civilian job at the Space Force upon graduation.
“We’ve had great success so far. [College students] can volunteer to come and work with the Space Force. When they do that, they get an exposure to what’s a civilian job in the Space Force, and what does it mean to be a civilian employee or a federal employee in the Space Force,” Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Human Capital Katharine Kelley said last week.
“There’s still a lot of data out there that shows that a lot of the United States doesn’t understand that you can be in the military but be a civilian and be supported and be supporting. This exposes that talent population in some of these schools to those opportunities. Then they go back, they do their normal school year, and we guarantee them a job when they graduate.”
The fiscal 2020 defense policy bill mandated the Defense Department to set up the Defense Civilian Training Corps. Congress has authorized a five-year runway for the initiative, allowing the Space Force and the broader DoD to assess its effectiveness in developing a civilian talent pipeline.
“We’re experimenting with how that model could work on the civilian side. We’ll be able to see how this works out and how many people actually take the job offer, and then how it goes,” said Kelley.
“Programs such as these will be critical in helping the US strengthen its interests in space.”
-Shruti Gurudanti, Rose Law Group partner, leader of the firm’s space law practice, and director of corporate transactions
