OUSD A&S - DCTC

Launch Your Career
with the Department of Defense

Endless Opportunities to Make an Impact

The Defense Civilian Training Corps is a highly selective program that provides a 100% tuition scholarship and a direct pathway into the Department of Defense (DoD) civilian workforce.

High achieving students with a demonstrated interest in making a meaningful difference as part of an innovative, interdisciplinary team, are selected from majors such as finance, engineering, sciences, business, and public policy to join a DCTC cohort at host universities across the United States.
In addition to classroom learning, DCTC cohort scholars will participate in several hands-on challenge projects, integrating diverse thinking to solve complex, real-life problems.
Summer internship placement with DOD labs and organizations will embed DCTC scholars within the civilian workforce for first-hand experience collaborating with dedicated, results-oriented teams working in every field from engineering to finance and supply chain management.
Upon graduation, scholars will join the DoD full-time with the support and accelerated career advancement opportunities necessary to achieve their professional ambitions.

Building National Security Leaders Today and for Tomorrow

Recruit and develop resilient DoD leaders who bring innovative ideas, diverse backgrounds, and a collaborative mindset to enable and secure the defense ecosystem.

The Defense Civilian Training Corps (DCTC) will educate and develop exceptional scholars to become digitally literate future leaders, capable of collaborating across disciplines and with the private sector to procure and protect strategically significant technologies.
DCTC will launch these scholars onto a career pathway full of exciting opportunities for growth, mentorship, and advancement.
Scholars in DCTC cohorts represent the agile, dynamic workforce of the future and will be empowered to make an immediate impact on the world.

Targeted Development for Success

Each cohort of DCTC scholars, representing a broad array of majors, will enroll in one classroom course per semester, supplemented with interdisciplinary, experiential learning opportunities, such as hackathons, gaming competitions, and tabletop exercises, led by experienced DoD practitioners. This dynamic approach to learning will develop in students an understanding of:

DoD values, policies, organizational structure, and career pathways.
Technological literacy in critical areas such as innovation, research, and development, especially as it applies to procurement and supply-chain management.
Project management skills, including risk management and systems engineering principles.
Business processes, contracting, negotiating, logistics, and supply chain management, including the way the defense industrial base operates.
Security threats and the regulatory and ethical responsibility of personal and DOD security and security clearances.
Cross-disciplinary team collaboration, communication, conflict mitigation, and leadership skills.

Our Partners

DCTC is a collaborative effort across Government, industry, and academia. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment (OUSD(A&S)) is the lead organization for the pilot effort, working in tandem with the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) and the Chief Digital & Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO).

Implementation of the pilot program and curriculum is led by the Acquisition Innovation Research Center (AIRC), a university affiliated research center (UARC) out of the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Coordination and partnerships with DoD organizations and labs, the military departments (Army, Navy, Air Force), reserve officer training corps (ROTC) programs, and the military academies provide opportunities for student internships and future DoD employment.

Finally, the colleges, universities, and students are the main reason for the program and our number one partner to create national security leaders for today and tomorrow. We proudly partner with historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) and other minority institutions (MIs) to provide an inclusive program across a breadth of diverse backgrounds.