The Engineers and Scientists (Non-Construction) Career Program (CP16) is comprised of all the Army's engineers and scientists working in acquisition and acquisition-related fields. Career program members do all levels of research, develop equipment for fielding, provide technical support to all phases of contracting, and continue to support the Army's equipment throughout its life cycle.

Career Program 16 is the largest of the Army's 22 career programs, with nearly 16,000 members. (More than half of the civilian workforce is not in any career program.) The smallest career program is Housing Management (CP27), with 394 members. The average size of a career program is just over 4,000, with a standard deviation of nearly 5,000.

Sixty percent of CP16 is engineers and forty percent is scientists. All engineering specialties are represented (except naval engineering). Our scientists are biologists, physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and closely related fields.

Career Program 16 is 83 percent male, tied for the highest proportion of men with CP20, Quality Assurance Specialists. The average for all career programs is 65 percent men and 35 percent women, with six career programs having more women than men.

Ethnically, CP16 is overwhelmingly White, with 79.5 percent. It also is .5 percent American Indian, 10 percent Asian-American/Pacific Islander, 5 percent Black, and 5 percent Hispanic. The average distribution for all career programs is 1 percent American Indian, 5 percent Asian-American/Pacific Islander, 12 percent Black, 5 percent Hispanic, and 76 percent White.

Career Program 16 is the youngest career program with an average age of 44.6 years. The overall average age is 47.6 years, with averages ranging from 44.6 to 53.1 years (Education Services, CP31).

What does Career Program Office 16 do?

In recent years, the CP16 office has been involved primarily with workforce education and national engineering awards programs. We also represent the career program's interests on various working groups and provide advice to members of the career program on Acquisition Workforce questions.

The Army Civilian Training, Education, and Development System (ACTEDS) program will pay for training for members of the various career programs. Training funds are available to career program members on a competitive basis for short term, long term, and university training. Short term training includes professional conferences relevant to the employee's job duties. ACTEDS funds may also be used to pay travel funds associated with approved training. Another use of ACTEDS funds is to support Training With Industry (TWI). The CP16 office does not find TWI opportunities for careerists. We can, on a competitive basis, pay for the trainee's expenses. Instructions on how to apply for ACTEDS funds and the application forms themselves are on the CPOL website (www.cpol.army.mil).

Some Army career programs are approaching a critical point in the ages of their workforce. Several (but not CP16) have not hired younger employees for some time and are facing collapse. The Army has convened a number of working groups to address this problem. The CP16 office represents the engineer and scientist workforce on those groups. Other working groups we are involved with include one that is reviewing the certification requirements for the Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering-Systems Engineering acquisition career field. Another we are involved group that is searching for ways to overcome barriers to increasing the representation of minorities in the Army's workforce.

What else does the Career Program Office want to do?

Over the last two years, the management of the Career Program has changed. We have a new Functional Chief, a new Functional Chief's Representative, and a new Career Program Office Chief (see below for current incumbents). Our goal is to widen the scope of our support to the workforce.

The first stage of our growth will be the development of a manpower flow model. Part of it will be guidance to the workforce on the types of courses and assignments needed to best develop their careers. It will also include tools for management to help plan recruitment and training targets and to run predictions about the future of the workforce.

Also, we are exploring developing a clearing house for rotational and developmental assignments, which may be supported with ACTEDS funds. We would like to have supervisors submit possible developmental assignments for posting on the Career Program's website (http://www.dacp16.net). Careerists would then apply for those positions through ACTEDS to the Career Program office. We would coordinate selections with the supervisor and fund the travel and living expenses.

Finally, as the advocate for CP16 concerns, we'd like you to tell us what you want us to do. If you have an idea we can use, we'll do our best to implement it.

CP16 People

The Commanding General of the Army Materiel Command, General Benjamin Griffin, is the ex officio Functional Chief of Career Program 16.

The Functional Chief's Representative is Mr. Gary Martin, Deputy to the Commanding General of the Research, Development and Engineering Command.

The chief of the CP16 Office is Martha Newman. Her email address is martha.newman1@us.army.mil.