The defense intelligence community is growing in the Charlottesville, Va., area and Piedmont Virginia Community College is playing a part in it.
PVCC and the Ohio-based Advanced Technical Intelligence Center for Human Capital Development have teamed up to provide a training program for locals to acquire the skills needed in the field and to get clearances.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the program will introductory courses and a 10-week “analyst boot camp,†requiring 400 hours of training and eight-hour classroom days.
“It’s not a program for everybody,†said Valerie Palamountain, dean of workforce services at PVCC. “It’s not the kind of program that you get into thinking, ‘I’m not sure what I want to do, so I’ll try defense analysis.’ The people who will do well are those who are already interested in the career.”
The Times-Dispatch reports DIA is relocating much of its intelligence analysis to Albemarle County, where PVCC is located. The training program was established after nationwide consolidation of military bases brought the DIA and 800 employees to the Rivanna Station military base north of Charlottesville.
ATIC has developed similar training programs at community colleges in Ohio to help place qualified analysts for contractors and agencies near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
