Directorate and division supervisors from throughout Huntsville Center gathered May 20 to hear Kristi Crear, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program manager for Civilian Career Program (CP) 18, discuss development and training opportunities, as well as programs to hire new employees in the construction engineering and science fields.
During the session, Crear spoke in depth and answered questions focused on Pathways Internship Program and the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program.
Dan Heinzelman, Huntsville Center Business Manager, said face-to-face time with Crear is important because the Center's mission demands a specialized and highly technical skill set.
“Our history has shown that utilizing a mixture of these programs is the optimal method for our managers to develop the specialized skills and grow well rounded employees,” Heinzelman said.
“As the headquarters representative, Crear is at the tip of the spear for these programs and is the best person to pass on the latest information to our managers, field questions and share our challenges and most importantly carry our message back to headquarters in order to potentially impact these programs for the future.”
One of the programs Crear intently focused on during the session is the Presidential Management Fellows program.
“The USACE CP 18 program is tasked to hire 50 PMFs in fiscal year 2016, and I believe because of the highly technical work performed here at Huntsville Center, the program is perfect for the gaining the right employees that the Center needs,” Crear said.
The program, established by Executive Order in 1977, attracts graduate students from a variety of academic disciplines and career paths into federal service.
Agency supervisors and hiring officials can hire fellows at the GS-9 level (although agencies can initially hire at the GS-9 thru 12, or equivalent).
As a fellow, the individual is an established student performing graduate-level academics or a recent graduate with a master’s degree. A great benefit of the program is that, once hired, they perform a two -year fellowship within the career field and often stay on with the agency that hired them.
This is an advantage in succession planning as opposed to the popular Pathways Program, which takes undergraduates from entry level to mid-level management positions, but also requires the person fill in other Army wide positions after graduation.
Bernard Givan, Commercial Utility Program (CUP) program manager, said the PMF Program is exactly what he needs to bring someone on board who will grow with the CUP.
“It’s hard to get people from the private utility sector to work for the government,” Givan said. “The PMF program is perfect because that way we can hire them, train them and keep them and that’s exactly what the CUP needs.”