Career Development of Air Force Officers in Contracting

<p>Developing and maintaining a motivated professional contracting workforce is one important way in which the Air Force can more easily meet the challenges of increased requirements and decreased resources both today and in the future. An effective career development program for Air Force officers in contracting is a key element in supporting a professional contracting community. This research considered five factors deemed necessary for supporting career development including experience professionalism expectations mentoring and training. The author studied the perceptions of captains in the contracting career field as a means of better understanding the unique career development challenges faced by contracting officers. This study concluded that captains in contracting do not perceive one best career path nor one best set of professional and technical skills. Also career expectations remain high and mentoring activity low despite recent institutional emphasis directed at both. Finally the value of current required formal training as rated by contracting officers seems to be high.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>