Examination of the U.S. Air Force's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Workforce Needs in the Future and Its Strategy to Meet Those Needs (2010) / Chapter Skim
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. Because an accepted and clear demarcation of the fields of study for an undergraduate major or post-baccalaureate degree that count as a STEM degree was not available either in Air Force documents or in the general literature, the committee developed a working list of STEM fields, building on work of the National Science Foundation.
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Their skills are applied across the entire acquisition life cycle of each system, from exploration of advanced technologies and definition of operational needs to the development, evaluation, and employment of tactical and strategic capabilities. Only five Air Force officer career fields currently require a STEM degree -- Weather (twodigit AFSC 15W)
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Assessments of future missions and the future operating environment suggest that Air Force missions will become more technologically intensive and will require a proportionally larger STEM workforce in many career fields across the Air Force. Finding 2-2b.
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The implications of these analyses are supported by the assessments of Air Force commanders and supervisors interviewed by the committee that their communities have insufficient personnel with adequate experience to perform the technically demanding aspects of jobs that require STEM capability. Civilian Air Force personnel in the occupational series that require a STEM degree are managed within three career programs, roughly paralleling the functional areas within which they are employed.
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The Air Force should lead the way in changing the OSD implementation policy of DAWIA by establishing STEM cognizance as a minimum requirement for program management certification. If OSD support for such a change is not forthcoming, the Air Force should unilaterally change its own implementing directives by specifying that STEM cognizance is a minimum requirement for acquisition program management certification.
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The Air Force should create a vehicle to coordinate and evaluate existing STEM-related outreach, education, and training activities. Current activities of this type include Project STARBASE, the Falcon Foundation, Civil Air Patrol, and Junior Reserved Officer Training Corps, as well as its partnerships in such activities with the Air Force Association, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and others.
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The Military Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition should be the functional advocate for all STEM personnel, and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower and Personnel (AF/A1) should oversee STEM decision support modeling, as well as recommending and implementing STEM personnel policies.
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The Air Force should use a STEM management decision support model (see Recommendation 6-1) to understand long-term impacts of cuts in authorization or manning for career fields requiring a STEM degree and to ensure that the leadership understands all the likely impacts of such cuts.
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The Air Force should make full use of scholarships and other incentives to encourage AFROTC students to pursue degrees in STEM disciplines or, if they are not enrolled in a STEM-degree program, at least to take sufficient STEM courses to qualify as STEMcognizant. In addition, Air Force officials should encourage the provost and faculty at institutions with AFROTC programs to include courses in the institution's undergraduate core curriculum that promote STEM cognizance.
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To address uncertainties in civilian workforce funding, and thereby improve employment and workforce stability, the Air Force should consider moving the acquisition workforce from the operations and maintenance funding line (Account 3400) to the RDT&E funding line (Account 3600)
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The Air Force should consider converting contract dollars currently being used to pay for contracted engineering talent into funds that can be used to support additional civilian engineering authorizations to bring more of the required expertise in house. Senior Air Force leadership must, however, ensure that the dollars thus saved flow from the contracting accounts directly into the various civilian pay accounts.
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