DACP Upskilling Roadshow Presentation Abbey Wood
DCMT held a roadshow at DE&S Abbey Wood on 26 October 2007 to explain the new training and education being developed in support of the Defence Acquisition Change Programme. The event was opened by General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue Chief of Defence Materiel and Tim Flesher Chief of Corporate Services. Rear Admiral Neil Latham Comdt DCMT also helped to introduce the presentation and explained that the new training opportunities were for both civilian and military staff across the wider acquisition community.
General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue was very positive about the need for upskilling in DE&S:
“Upskilling is for everyone. There needs to be a strong focus on professionalism and meeting standards that are externally recognised but this does not mean that experience is not valued. We need to put knowledge into practice.
As an organisation continuing professional development needs to be part of our culture. We all need to maintain, and improve, our professional competence throughout our careers. Developing our own skills, or those of the people who work for us, is part of the day job. We recognise that it is challenging to find time to do this, and we may have to be more flexible and imaginative in how we do so. The opportunities being delivered by the DACP Upskilling programme which you will hear about later on and is one way in which our training providers are helping us.
Within DE&S we have set a training day target. The 6 + 4 day target demonstrates our commitment to learning and development. It is a means to an end not an end in itself. Individuals and teams need to interpret it sensibly and use it to deliver real skills improvement. Whilst in DE&S we have focussed additional effort on developing skills in a number of key areas of acquisition – project and programme management, commercial, engineering (including CIS), resource management (finance) and logistics. This does not mean that other skills, both core and functional, are not important. As individuals and teams we need to identify our priority areas for skill development and the best way to meet them.
We need our relationship with Industry to be flexible, agile and responsive to our changing needs”
Tim Flesher said:
“We need to improve skill levels across the organisation and to work more closely with Defence Academy in aligning future training and education provision with the needs of the business and the individual”
RAdm Neil Latham said:
“We need to draw together professional skills and behaviour to provide our people with the ‘skill and will’ to deliver; ensure they are employed to best effect, encouraged to develop and improve our core values. The development benefits we can get from this programme are, greater agility, better management of risks and capability, future flexibility and transformation of our relationship with industry”
Photo - From left to right: Nicola House (DaLearning), General Sir Kevin O’Donoghue (Chief of Defence Materiel), RAdm Neil Latham (Commandant DCMT), Cheryl Clarke (DaLearning), Tim Flesher (Chief of Corporate Services DE&S)