The Office of Personnel Management has directed federal agencies to build their FY27 annual staffing plans with a governmentwide target of at least 33% early career hires, to include recent graduates and interns. On Federal News Network’s Workforce Reimagined Webinar, OPM Director Scott Kupor remarked that OPM has specifically identified a governmentwide need for early career software engineering, data analytics, procurement, finance and human resources personnel. He also explained that in the technology talent space, the Tech Force initiative has certified approximately 300 recruits toward a goal of 1,000.

The Defense Civilian Training Corps (DCTC) has been developing entry level talent for a digitally literate acquisition workforce pipeline since 2023. We succeeded in securing tentative job offers within the Defense Department for 80% of the 84 students in our 2026 graduating class. No DoD internship program had a greater transition rate. It’s also better than the national average. Across the country, only 43% of the class of 2026 had a job offer in hand at graduation.

But the federal government needs more early talent wins, especially to achieve the revolutionary acquisition reform the administration and Congress have directed. No single talent pipeline is going to close the gap.

At the Acquisition Innovation Research Center, the university applied research center tasked to launch DCTC, we have learned a lot about how to bridge the talent valley of death between college, the primary supply of talent and the federal civilian workforce. We’ve streamlined and accelerated our throughline to meet the need. We’ve also seen where the most significant challenges arise.

First, we can tell you what the problem is NOT: student motivation to serve. Three hundred students turned out last week at the Purdue University National Security and Defense Society (NDS) back to school meeting. NDS is a student-run organization established in 2024 by members of the first DCTC cohort who wanted to share with peers their passion to serve our nation’s defense. Already, NDS has expanded to 5 chapters, including other land-grant universities like Virginia Tech, which boasts over 200 members in national security student organizations on campus, according to a colleague of mine at the university

A challenge we’ve learned to overcome is the priority skill gap. The universities within the AIRC network have outstanding faculty and state-of-the-art research facilities to do first-rate academic preparation within the schools of business and engineering. But to make the immediate impact DoD needs, entry level hires must understand how government works, how to leverage ever-evolving technology including AI, how to navigate the constant cycle of reform in defense acquisition, how to speak the language of acquisition and data, and how to work in teams to solve hard problems.

In response, the DCTC bridge has evolved to be an end-to-end talent throughline with three essential parts: 1) a campus presence to identify and vet top talent; 2) experiential learning and project-based internships to understand and work within the system; and 3) coaching to ensure cleared and ready graduates match with organizations that can leverage hiring authorities. By the time they graduate, our scholars are armed with a clearance, mission-based experience, and confidence to know how to make their difference.

The hardest, even heartbreaking, part of building a talent bridge from college into the workforce, is that once the talent is developed and ready to make their impact, without centrally managed and resourced billets, new graduates can slide off the edge without landing a DoD job.

We have had to put our greatest effort into the last mile of the bridge into civil service. Once the summer internships conclude, our seniors work with a coach who sharpens their resumes, practices interviewing, and steers them to existing vacancies across DoD.

We developed creative solutions with DoD organizations who tell us they want the digitally literate, critical thinking talent we produce, but don’t have vacant billets at the end of the summer internship. The AIRC partnered with existing DoD talent pipelines that recognized the value of our development model.

Generally speaking, civilian hiring is managed locally, but centrally managed programs like the Navy Acquisition Development Program, Air Force PALACE Acquire and the Army Fellows program set aside a certain number of billets each year.

DCTC was able to help fill billets for FY26 that had been affected by the hiring freeze. In addition, a few of our students were accepted as graduate students into the SMART Scholarship-for-Service program, which sets aside billets for STEM talent. Partnering with these existing pipelines created a win-win situation.

In the end, AIRC has realized the real talent challenge has largely to do with timing. Hiring plans rarely align with academic calendars, and neither aligns with unpredictable budgeting timelines. This will present a significant hurdle for OPM’s annual staffing plans. We cannot let the last mile be where the talent falls through.

We also cannot allow for a mindset that government and the defense industrial base (DIB) are in competition for top talent. NDS students have shown us they don’t differentiate; they invite both DoD and DIB senior leaders to keynote their events. The sense of purpose they seek can be achieved across the defense ecosystem.

DCTC skills are portable and industry-government fluency is critical. The DoD-DIB partnership is strengthened when service-minded college students are prepared for a career path that traverses both. Kupor’s vision for Tech Force as a two-year program is right sized for the future workforce.

Congress and the executive branch are sending a clear signal that talent development must be prioritized for reform efforts to stick. Lasting reform can only be achieved when the two branches are aligned. And right now, both see the value of investing in a bridge for entry level talent. Talent pipelines must expand and view their effects as cumulative not in competition. Together we will put up stronger recruiting numbers, close the talent gap, and develop the skills of the future workforce.

Karen Thornton is a fellow at the Acquisition Innovation Research Center.

Copyright © 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.