TSG’s Kearney: Accelerated Training Program a Boon to Defense Industry

Danville, Va. – The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) and Danville Community College (DCC), in partnership with The SPECTRUM Group and Phillips Corp., directly engaged with shipbuilders and shipbuilding industry suppliers to develop a focused curriculum centered on the specific skilled workforce needs of the defense advanced manufacturing industry. This curriculum is the foundation of an innovative pilot program, Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing (ATDM), that launched in June to address gaps in the skilled manufacturing workforce – the workforce vital to U.S. defense companies.

The Department of Defense (DoD) Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Office awarded ATDM an initial $7 million contract, via the Cornerstone OTA, to support the program’s development, launch, and expansion. The Office is closely watching this program as a template for the creation of regional training centers that can rapidly train skilled workers at the numbers needed to meet and expand the defense industrial base’s manufacturing requirements. Key to the program’s ability to deliver is its targeted curriculum, which shrinks the typical 18- to 24-month training into just four months of 40-hour-per-week training.

The SPECTRUM Group’s Tom Kearney wrote about the ATDM program for NDIA’s National Defense magazine in “Accelerated Training Program a Boon to Defense Industry,” published July 30, 2021. Read the full article here.