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well welcome and thanks for joining me today on leadership blog which is a podcast for the air force lifecycle management center community on topics of interest and the topic of interest today is civilian developmental education so we're here speak uh and learn a little bit more about that so bam linda if you could please introduce yourself and give us a little your background thank you so much for having me my name is linda lichty i'm currently the chief of workforce development here at the life cycle management center i've been a career civilian with the air force for a little over 21 years time's uh starting to escape me a little bit but over the last over the last five years i've really been involved in civilian developmental education both from a professional program management perspective and just from a personal perspective and i'll just briefly share my path up to this point and why i i truly believe civilian developmental education is so important for our workforce i i started at afpc in a career branding position it was specifically on the force support career field team and it's funny because a career writing position it was the first time i'd ever knew of something like that and i'd actually applied for it through usa jobs so i wasn't vectored the typical way that you would be vectored in a development team but i got an opportunity for about 18 months to see what happens on development teams behind the scenes and how important these programs are for the development of our our future air force leaders civilian leaders so about 18 months on the team there i took what i learned there and brought it to the headquarters mo air force material command staff and i was a program manager for civilian developmental education along with some other things from december 2018 until june of 2020. so this is uh cde is very is very close to my heart it's it's amazing to see individuals develop and really gain some some amazing skill sets from these opportunities that the air force provides us okay thank you and mike can you introduce yourself to the audience sure thank you uh very much daryl i'm mike mathis i'm the aflcmc civilian developmental education program manager i've been in my current position for a little over two years but this will actually be my fourth cde cycle that i worked um prior military 27 years of active duty i was in the four sport career field numerous positions at just about every level of the air force working personnel and formal training programs i also was a professional military education instructor for four years training development um instructing are all near and dear to my heart the last couple years here working in workforce development at the center has really been a highlight of my 10 years of career civil service i've worked closely with the executive director um miss watern who is a huge proponent of development for our civilian workforce and it's just been an absolute pleasure to have that type of leadership and someone who supports everything we do it's such a high level um i'm excited about the opportunity today to discuss cde um i think it's it's invaluable uh i was selected uh for a course here recently the leading with impact unfortunately uh the pandemic and current conditions actually pushed my course back almost two years so i still plan on going i'm looking forward to it it's just been held up a little bit but we're excited to speak with you today thank you okay no thank you thank you very much uh so let's start right at the top uh what is civilian developmental education and why is it important and we'll start with linda okay civilian developmental education it is a centrally managed centrally funded portfolio of developmental opportunities for our civilian workforce specifically and it really is designed even though you can at all levels tactical operational and strategic it's truly its intent is to to build and develop our future air force leaders those who work alongside our military leaders and really assist in that air force leadership succession planning so the portfolio is very diverse it says it can be as long as up to three years to five years in some of the experiential programs it can be as as little as two days so it just depends on what it is that you're looking for in your in your career at this point in time i can guarantee you there's something within this portfolio that would fit you at any point in your career we can go down as far as a gs1 when it comes to eligibility all the way up to a gs15 so that the portfolio is incredibly broad and there's something out there for everyone wow mike what do you say um linda is is always great at hitting the high points and it's it's tough to follow her always but you know the real uh the real benefit of cde is is that it is centrally funded so it's free it's a competitive process so you do have to apply and compete with others because there are quotas for each of the programs some have a lot of quotas some have very few so it can be very very competitive but you know again cbe is really designed to meet the long-term air force leadership needs it's an opportunity for us as a service to develop our civilians to share leadership with military we're preparing high potential air force civilians for increased responsibility the great programs that expose our civilians to different leadership theories at different locations different entities different instructors and a real highlight is an opportunity especially when you go tdy to interact with others who are civilian leaders or potential civilian leaders who you might never meet in a career but you come together and you share experiences and there's a lot to be gained from that it's a very exciting opportunity all about selecting the right person at the right time to get some really really good leadership training so we touched a little bit about eligibility but who who is actually eligible to apply for this so mike i'll take that okay so any any of your appropriated funded civilians your apf civilians in a full-time permanent status can apply as long as they have two years of federal civil service by 13 march and this year it's 2021 and that date is specific every year with with the year actually rotating depending on on what year it is that you're applying because that two-year mark that's when the application process ends so that's why 13 march is so important and that's not waverable a lot of of our hard charging high potential new recruits to the air force are very interested in this portfolio unfortunately you got to wait that 24 months in the position before you can apply however there are other opportunities available that they can dip into just just to get that developmental train started and a lot of them are through air university we have the emerging leader course which is a self-enrollment process that's a great way to get folks started with this whole developmental continuum that that we get to experience as civilians [Music] i'm sorry okay yeah i i would you know while the uh the two years of federal service is the key um and it it it's really at times a contentious uh one of the only really contentious rules uh sometimes it's hard to understand why you have to wait to 24 months especially for individuals who cross over from from the military service but it is an important rule what it does is it puts everybody kind of at the same competitive advantage for that 24 months and that first 24 months is really should be focused on building foundational competencies uh within your functional area so before we start grooming you as a leader you want to make sure you have a strong functional uh foundation and then we start moving ahead into the leadership competencies thank you i'd also like to add a lot of the career fields we'll have in the programs will have additional eligibility requirements so you definitely want to go out to my purse and check out each one of the programs and its eligibility possible limitations that are out there they're not all encompassing that the ones we mentioned so far just the general for all cde opportunities and then career fields may also leverage other eligibility requirements such as education level um must be a bachelor's or a master's for instance or you must be in a particular career field to compete for things such as education with industry so there are some other idiosyncrasies out there based on program the basic prerequisites you mean that you need to be aware of before you can apply for it okay all right now i've heard that there's boarded and non-boarded applications i didn't really understand what that meant um maybe you could explain that for us that that's a fun one because they've changed the language a little bit the uh the boarded and non-boarded is really defines the development team and the central selection board so non-boarded programs make it to your functional community only your career field and the development team will bless those particular applicants to move forward to the cde office who will then make the selection based on a a cut line because you're competing against other your peers and other functionals for those quotas there are a lot more quotas in your non-boarded programs than you're boarded the boarded programs go to a a higher level of scrutiny and evaluation so within afmc and within lcmc our boarded programs are endorsed by ms water specifically lcmc for those at the headquarters level those are endorsed by ms young so our center cas with within the matchcom are very involved in the boarded process that's a little bit different than the air force personnel center's advertisement and the reason we do that is because number one our leaders take they just really value the development of our civilians and and they put their money where their mouth is there so they spend the time to review each one of these boarded applications going forward it's very important and they you're competing against other potential department of defense components as well some of these quotas are only one to two for the air force so they want to make sure that the best quality applicant goes forward and it's it's really paid off it's really paid off for all family we've seen it a tremendous selection rate for boarded applications so you know and other differences exist outside of quota and the level of endorsement usually with aborted applications they're a longer term commitment you're in you're in training for a longer period of time typically more expensive typically require a mobility agreement at the end of that and what a mobility agreement is is that you sign a document once you're done with the training that you're going to be outplaced in not only in the best interests of the air force but you do have a say in potential outplacement as well but that mobility agreement is part of the application process and the intent behind the mobility agreement is i send you to three years of a training opportunity i don't want to put you back in the job that you left it's not showing a good return on investment for the air force we want to put you into a position of higher responsibility and leadership so that you can capitalize on those skills that you just learned that's the intent with mobility however it is possible especially in a location like wright patterson where you can be outplaced in a different organizational level but still not have to leave the geographic region so there's some flexibility there a lot of your non-boarded programs will not require a mobility agreement because they're shorter in duration they're short they're less on investment more so targeting specific foundational competencies that that may be a gap for you such as uh let's see teamwork building building teams uh decision making critical decisions strategic thinking those types of of skill sets mike what do you have to add to that well you know i sit at my desk in all the boarded applications for ms waters endorsement and for our senior career functional advisor reviews come to me and one of the questions that i get all the time is you know is that question of what is the difference and linda just nailed that but one thing i i would just highlight is we use those terms boarded and onboarded even the non-boarded applications still meet a competitive process there are still our even though there are maybe more quotas there usually still are more applicants than there are available quotas so even though it has the the nomenclature non-boarded it is still technically bored it is still competitive uh though the records are lined up and uh a cut line is made depending on the number of applicants and the number of quotas so we we do struggle with that at times and we do clarify that but we still see a lot of the applicants uh get calls saying hey i applied for a non-boarded program when do i go and you still have to compete the board's so has to select you okay well let's get into the competition then um what can a person do to make themselves more competitive or what can a supervisor do if you've got a person in your care that is interested in taking one of these courses or competing for them what can they do to make themselves more competitive that that's an outstanding question supervisors first need to understand what the portfolio offers they need to understand the programs that are part of that portfolio in a little more detail so they can have those guided discussions with their employees and help them determine which programs are appropriate for them at this particular point in their career and that matches their short and long term goals where they want to be in the next three to five years so that's the best thing the supervisors can do is educate themselves about these programs you don't need to know the the minutia or the the smallest detail about each one that um that's not necessary but just have a general understanding of what's available to this nh3 who's one year into the position what's the best opportunity for them right so it's having that that discussion and then getting an understanding of what what the what the employee wants you know what what's motivating that employee where do they want to be are they ready are they ready to to go into a high performing position are they ready to move on to more responsibility that takes that takes some deliberate conversation and discussion so that's where it starts now the application process is really the easiest part it's determining what it exactly it is that i need at this moment in my career and those supervisors agree that this is this is what you need at this moment in your career as well there's this really neat tool that just was released two weeks ago on my vector it's called the air force foundational competency assessment and we'll talk about my vector a little bit later as well but an individual can go out at any given time and assess their those 22 foundational competencies that the air force values and determine what areas of improvement they require that's a great tool an individual can use and then look at what what the curriculum on the my purse website what does it target in those those foundational skills and then you can match up some of those opportunities with where you are in your career this is a once in a once a year solicitation it happens the same time every year january through march and i just and and i want a footstep it's some individuals are not in a position to compete every year so it depends on what your personal situation is where you are in your career where you are in your job where you are are from a personal uh lifestyle perspective not not always opportu these opportunities are at the right time like mike mentioned earlier mike you said that you see all the packages that come through uh what what are the ones that that you see that rise to the top what are some of the the things that that bring them up well i think it is a continuation of what linda just said the applications come in and you can tell that the supervisor has taken the time to sit down with the employee the potential applicant and actually look into portfolios and discuss is that is it the right training at the right time is it is it going to further the employees development in the direction that they need to go does it support the individual development plan um is the individual the right fit for the program you know we we discuss a lot about the board of programs and some of them being very high level and having very few quotas we have one program the executive leadership development program which is a outstanding program and yearly we see it has about 10 quotas service wide so to be competitive for that you have to have a very strong very outstanding record what we see is individuals who have taken the time in my vector to fully develop their resume so that their resume captures the breadth and depth of their experience what they contribute uh how it impacts the organization the awards they've won very strong fully developed resumes and i know we're going to talk about my vector a little bit later but it my vector is in its third cycle for cbe and it doesn't automatically populate a lot of the resume and it doesn't allow you to upload a resume so you have to have very strong information to put into the system because that is what the board sees and then a real key component is the endorsement that the supervisor writes i've seen practice come in that don't fare well the individual applies and the supervisor says yes i highly recommend mike mathis for the program and that's the end of the endorsement your strong endorsements will be fully developed they'll talk about some type of statement of character about the individual and their leadership potential which is a key uh that's what the board's looking for they explain how the candidate exemplifies the selection criteria for that program and how the qualities they have that are required for the program exists and how they exhibit them routinely in a larger context it'll talk about how that program is the right program for their career timing and also the endorsement also talk where they're standing is emotionally not just in their office but within the center uh proposed this miss walker captures they are really at the top of their profession at the top of their organization and each of the um of the applicants when when they're putting their application together the past kind of steered away from from an assignment a post cd assignment recommendation if it wasn't required but now we're seeing feedback from the development saying even if it's just even a short workflow person may not have a future assignment explaining what the individual will do with that assignment and how it either them as they continue to progress and become one of our center leaders um putting all that together in a very concise manner and in an area that's pretty constricted and doesn't value a lot of room for life is key and we see we see our supervisor struggle with that so we're trying to put together get this out and help but those are really the keys and it you know like linda said it is cde is an annual call it happens every year the programs we you know we see a core programs that say stay the same but and some you change about 10 or 15 of the programs will change in a given year but it's okay to say no it should be okay to sit down with your subordinate or your employee and say maybe this program isn't the right program for your developmental need at this time it's uh it's a different program we don't of course want to tell anybody no because all development is good but maybe instead of a disapproval redirecting them to one of the other courses that may be the right time for their needs their developmental needs and their goals those are key the individuals goals and needs as a combination again we're trying to put our high potential employees into these programs we're trying to put develop them become our center leaders our multi-domain leaders so catching all that information putting that into the application is thank you okay i do want to mention go ahead just to add on to that one one key factor that we really don't discuss as much as we really should and mike alluded to that in the resume where you include your special accomplishments any awards or medals of civilians that you've received performance is key you need to show a history of high performance and the only way you can truly show that is through your resume so i'm going to foot stomp the resume you need to put in very qualitative quantitative lead leadership types of projects positions that you've held the dt doesn't some members of the dt won't know you especially if it's your first time applying so you've got to sell yourself in that that resume is the best way to do it and the endorsement statement the endorsement statement like he mentioned we've seen some people not go forward who are outstanding applicants because the time wasn't put in to this to the endorsement statements and there's two of them one one is your first level supervisor and the second one may be the second level supervisor if it's non-boarded or mis-modern if it's boarded so that there needs to be some thought in those endorsement statements and i'll also say in addition to performance that final endorsement statement is key to the dt also because they really they really put a lot of weight in what the squadron has to say on those packages so where is a is there a place where employees or supervisors can go to see all of the various options for cde and and uh what the application processes are requirements that kind of information yes yes the hub for all things civilian developmental education is is my the my purse website myperson.af.mill once you enter there you're going to click on civilian employee on the tab on the left side of the screen it says force development you click on force development and it'll bring up a home page that links you to everything that that is centrally managed to include tuition assistance and other training opportunities that the functional communities provide so it's it's all there for you they're in the process of updating for academic you're 22 now so there may be some changes that that you'll see tomorrow that you may not see on the screens today so just keep checking back up until the time that the cycle starts on the 13th of january uh you'll and i'm just i'm just going to add this because we've had five new courses this year they were released last week one of them is a bachelor's degree and and the the problem i have to say it's a problem with that is it's not a free-for-all bachelor's degree like they did with the civilian associates degree program they released about three years ago it's a very limited quota so it's a boarded program and it shares it's quoted with the master's degree but there's going to be a lot of interest in that so just take take some time go through through the editions some of them are snuck in on you they're not really highlighted on the page so it takes it's it's well worth your time to go through each one of the opportunities to see ultimately how it how it's uh possibly exactly what you need at this point how it differs maybe from other programs when it comes to application or duration and mike uh what's the application process look like well for uh for for lcmc and well actually for all the centers in nfmc but i will speak specifically to lcmc it actually does depend whether you're applying for a boarded or not board program for uh for our lcmc applicants who are applying strictly and only for non-boarded programs you can it's important to note that you can apply for up to four programs they can be all boarded all non-boarded or a combination but just for for individuals just applying for an onboarded they would go to uh to my purse once the uh 13 january window opens excuse me my vector once in 13th january when if they don't have account they'll need to build one they would go out they would build their resume and my vector is really unique in that when the application window opens it becomes very individual specific you'll clap you click on the cde in the application and it pulls up just those programs you are eligible for based on your grade so you'll have we get a lot of calls from people saying hey how come i'm not seeing program x and it usually is because they they don't meet the grade requirement um each program like we said the two-year service is the basic minimum eligibility but each program does have specific uh eligibility requirement usually tied to grade and then other factors but a good strong putting together that good strong resume and then completing the application they have their first endorser uh provide their narrative comments um and then it's sent to the final endorser who's usually the second level supervisor for the non-border programs in most cases once the second level finalizes the is and automatically puts it in the queue at a of pc for the boarded applications this is where a lot of confusion comes in for lcmc the first level supervisor does the endorsement to the application then they would export the application with their endorsement language on it the individual resume they would export that as well then they would also complete a proposed endorsement worksheet which we supply lcnc to all of our applicant board applicants with a proposed endorsement for this is what ms water should be written at the senior level senior leader level and uh those are all sent to the cde workflow in our office at that point once i get them i review them for eligibility i review them for accuracy i review them for any grammatical errors based on our experience that the endorsement seems to be a little shallow uh we'll engage with the supervisor and try to beat that up and then we send that sent functional senior function and they review it as well what they'll do is they don't just approve any but maybe if they think that it's not the right time for that program they will uh they'll engage with the individual supervisor to discuss it they may engage with the individual applicant and they will either strengthen the application um give the applicant the ability to withdraw or to apply for a different program that will do it again once the senior center functional review is completed uh all the applications uh and we type them all in the edit and then we send them over to mrs waters office and she puts together a team to review them and she puts her eyes on each of them each of the applications and her endorsement probably about three times she'll rewrite each one three times um as i mentioned before she is a strong strong component of workforce development and she is all in so she really um she really takes sets time aside and takes the the strongest effort to put our our boarded applicants in the strongest position all right so we're just about at the end of our time now um so before we close i just want to see is there anything that we've left out or anything that you really want to reiterate uh before we click before we wrap it up i i would like to reiterate that take advantage of this opportunity to to do to participate in these programs um they're they're amazing and some of some of the individuals who have been through these programs and you'll get to experience their a few of their stories over the next podcast that we do they're life-changing for some individuals they really re-blue some individuals so it's really amazing the networks that you create across department of defense is incredibly beneficial so take take a look at the programs take the time to to research it and find something that's that's good for you also the cycle kicks off the 13th of january and will go through the 13th of march there's internal deadlines to those dates that an employee needs to have their application in by as well as the endorsements need to be done by so pay very special attention to the afpc published dates and the lcmc publish dates for those boarded programs and and just get those applications flowing yeah all right mike anything you'd like to add yep just quickly we're about a month out from the window opening don't wait until the window opens to get out and get familiar with my purse and even more importantly my vector you can begin working on your resume right now to strengthen it and ensure it reads how you want it to read and how you want to represent you at the uh during when the development teams review or the cd the central board convenes it's it's the only thing that uh will represent you so it's very important that your your resume is uh is up tight and and you have a whole month right now to work on that so don't wait till that deadline and i would just one more thing you're going to see a lot of conflicting information that comes out you'll get information from the match com and center from the career field teams just remember if you are an employee in lcmc we have a process and we will send that information out and blasted you into that for the especially for the board of programs and if you ever have a question you can contact our office and we will help you out in any way we can thanks that's great uh and do you have like a phone number or email address that people can contact for the office yeah i would ask that for application questions if you contact me at michael.mathis m-a-t-h-e-s dot two at u dot af dot mil or they can imm me um i i am working from home so that seems to be the best way i'm very responsive and and i don't take leave during the cde cycle so i will get back with them just as fast that is a true statement that is a true statement all right well i appreciate your time today i think this has been very beneficial information for people that have heard about these programs but may not have known uh whether or not they can apply now they know that they can go and look at this information and and compete so thanks very much thank you for your time thank you very much you