Department of Homeland Security, Center for Academic and Interagency Programs
Department of Homeland Security, Center for Academic and Interagency Programs : "The Center for Academic and Interagency Programs will employ partnerships and current best practices to provide DHS employees with the highest quality training, education and professional development opportunities available in the homeland security community. The Center will establish and maintain partnerships and linkages with interagency counterparts, institutions of higher learning and professional associations. "As the academic discipline of homeland security emerges and grows, it will eventually develop enough depth to positively impact DHS operations and initiatives. The Center for Academic and Interagency Programs provides a foundation for the DHS University System, supporting the pillars by sustaining a cycle of continuous academic improvement. Effective implementation will require: (1) Communication: The Department will first focus on increasing awareness of the many programs already available to employees within DHS components and throughout academia and the interagency community. This requires continuous and timely communication and information sharing between organizations. The Department will share relevant information on training, education and professional development opportunities through the DHS OCHCO learning and development website and interagency consortiums and councils. (2) Coordination: Coordination via partnerships and linkages will include managing learning opportunity quotas between agencies and determining appropriate mixes of employee populations to maximize the learning benefit and methods to leverage opportunities at academic institutions. All parties involved must carefully consider the benefits of the partnership in order to optimize the value to DHS and to our partners. (3) Collaboration: Melding the talents and expertise of workforce managers, course developers and content managers from different agencies will facilitate interagency communication and cooperation. The collective work of cross-cultural learning and development professionals will help build and sustain cooperative interagency and intergovernmental working relationships. By working together, the multi-faceted academic discipline of homeland security will emerge and grow. (4) Programs: The Katrina Lessons Learned Interagency Working Group on Professional Development, the DHS Training Leaders Council and the National Security Education Consortium have all identified the value of reaching outside the Department to build capacity and capabilities to support mission operations. DHS is involved in several such program initiatives and is developing new programs that when expanded will more effectively meet current and future DHS and interagency professional development needs. Some examples include: (1) The Science and Technology Directorate's Centers of Excellence and Homeland Security Scholars and Fellows Programs (2) National Security Education Consortium pilot for a National Security Professionals Program (3) The DHS Office of Grant Programs (FEMA/GP) funded Center for Homeland Defense and Security Executive Development Program (4) The Center for Academic and Interagency Programs Center will augment existing programs by establishing new fellowship, scholarship and internship opportunities at the baccalaureate and graduate levels to align with mission-critical occupational requirements and functional areas (e.g., maritime security, intelligence, human resources management) "Partnerships, communication, coordination and collaboration with our academic and governmental counterparts will support the pillars of the DHS University System and develop unlimited potential for employee learning and development, while effectively enhancing the Department's and Nation's capacity to manage homeland and national security missions. (DHS, Establishing a DHS University System, Sep 2007, pp. 16-17)
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