- (radio transmission drowns out speaker) - The air force has announced a creation of a new information operations technical training school. (air whooshing) - The First Command simply must arm our airmen to outthink, outperform, out partner, out innovate any potential adversary. - Air force basic military training has an updated curriculum with a new focus on readiness and lethality. - The First Command, the Air Force Starts Here. - Welcome to the Air Force Starts Here podcast, I'm your host for this professional development podcast, Jennifer Gonzalez from the AETC Public Affairs team. As you know, this podcast is dedicated to bringing total force big airmen tips, trick and lesson learned from the recruiting training and education worlds. In this episode, we're discussing a new force development tool for air force and space force professionals to grow professionally. The Developmental Special Experiences catalog, is a consolidated list of available learning activities outside the scope of formal training, that have been validated as a potential means to obtain specific foundational, occupational or joint competencies. Joining us to discuss the DSE catalog is Mr. Jerry Perez with AETC A3BD, and the branch chief of Developmental Special Experiences. Thank you so much, Jerry, for joining us today. - Well, thank you for having us. - So tell me a little bit about AETC A3BD. What is this office and what do you guys do in it? - Sure, I'd kinda like to start with a big picture if you will. We're no different than any other air force organization in that, we're here to support the National Defense Strategy. And everyone knows that our military is probably the most modern cutting edge weapon tree out there, but it's the people really that are the most important component of any weapon system and of our defense. So we play a part in that, we play a part in the force development effort that supports the strategy. So the office was established back in April, 2018 and it was tasked to develop and maintain that DSE catalog as you mentioned. And a part of our duties then involve working with other organizations within the government, our sister services, to make sure that we can collect and catalog these developmental special experiences or DSEs. - So what is a DSE, a Developmental Special Experience? - So it's a term. The DSE is probably unfamiliar to folks 'cause it's, but it's not really a new concept. DSEs include things that people are familiar with like special duties that we try to do in AETC let's say, fellowships, internships, things like that, so people are familiar with those type of terms, but those are all DSEs. So we look at it in the simplest of terms it's a learning opportunity, and to be classified as a DSE you've got to meet four criteria. The first one is, it's gotta provide hands-on experiences that are gonna be outside your formal AFSE or career series training and education, but we really wanna express that word experiences. 'Cause it's more than just let's say the education training you may receive to prepare you for that DSE. Give you a quick example, if you were getting a continuous process improvement certification, either as a black belt or a green belt, you got to take classes for that certification but it's actually the events that you have to take or conduct that make this a DSE because you're gonna apply what you've learned. So that was the second one, the third one then is it's gotta be offered more than once at a unit organization. And the reason for that is we wanna make these opportunities available to others over time, so it's not a one and done type thing. And finally, the DSEs are there to help you as we've already mentioned, gain or maybe enhance competencies. You might or might not have the opportunity to do within your primary career field and that black belt or green belt in CPI is a good example of that. - So how important is it that our airmen focus on their professional development outside of their AFSEs? - I think it's a very important thing, the Air Force and the Department of Air Force, it's probably not just limited to arm or the services. But when you're looking at the military, especially in today's environment, you want a well-rounded individual. Someone that is not just a specialty in one niche, although that's important, it's also important to have someone that is expanding their horizons in terms of learning and and being a more viable tool for the military so that they can help our defense of our country and you do that by being multi-site capable and you're only gonna do that by expanding your horizons. - Can you tell us a little bit about the DSE catalog, what it is and the purpose of it? - Sure, so like we talked about, many of the DSEs are programs that people already know about. But for the first time ever these are all captured in one location. So we've consolidated all these DSEs into a single catalog and it helps provide that transparency we need when we're taking a look at our future careers, so it'll help us shape those careers. So the DSEs then become valuable to help gain some experiences and maybe some competencies. And it's gonna be these knowledge, skills and abilities that are gonna help with your upward mobility and career enhancement. So by putting this in a single catalog it really does simplify research efforts. It's one stop shopping if you will, but I wanna stress the catalog itself, doesn't really replace the application process. Each listing is owned and it's managed by that DSE's organization. And so interested parties should still work with that POC to ensure they get all the information they need beyond the catalog or anything they wanna do with the application process. - And Jerry, before this catalog came about what were people using to find out about these DSEs or developmental opportunities? - So they were using essentially the assignment systems and whenever notifications came out let's say for a fellowship that one was available, maybe you received an email letting you know that the window was open, and that's what makes the catalog I think a more valuable tool because the listings are always in there, they're persistent, whereas in AMS or maybe talent management, you're not gonna be aware of the opportunity until it's open and it may be too late because a lot of these opportunities require some prerequisites, and you may not be positioned in, be the best candidate for that application. So having it in the catalog that you can look at it at any time whether it's open or not, allows you then to prepare yourself and make you more competitive, when those positions are open. - That's wonderful that you can really future cast or long-term goal your career to meet those learning milestones, if there's something out there that you're specifically interested in. - Exactly and actually a lot of these opportunities if you look at the pyramids for development, for our airmen, whether you're officer, enlisted or civilian, these opportunities kind of span that pyramid, they can be at the lower levels of the pyramid, up onto the higher levels as well. So they kind of span your career. - So where can you access this catalog? - The catalog can be accessed anywhere. If you go to MyVector, I'm sorry, if you go to MyVector, you can go ahead and get that catalog, but anyone can use it. I mean, it's open to the entire Department of the Air Force actually. So our guardians and our airman can both use the catalog but you need to have on MyVector account. And if you don't already have in MyVector account I really highly recommend you get one because it's gonna be a very valuable tool for your career development. So once you log into MyVector you go to the development plan menu item on the left of that toolbar, and it's a very user-friendly catalog so you can sort the information of listings in any way you like, whether it's by airman type, whether you're officer, enlisted, civilian, you can sort of by rank, your rank or maybe your AFSE or career series. However you wanna do it but it's, user-friendly - I think, I got the opportunity to get onto MyVector and check out the catalog, and I think one of the greatest resources on there is that not only does it give you the prerequisites that you need to meet, but also a contact. (Jennifer laughs) - Exactly and we're trying to do that to ensure that we have the contacts and we're trying to make the contacts to where they're based on an organization not an individual, because people move on, right? You're PCS, you move to different positions. So we wanna make sure that the information in there is persistent and it's relevant. So we try to list organizational email addresses or phone numbers, so that hopefully you'll be able to reach someone that is responsible for that particular DSE. - So on the catalog you can filter it by your position, whether it's enlisted, officer or civilian, you can filter by interests, or what are some of the filter, how can you filter on MyVector to find opportunities that you might be eligible for? - So there's several categories within an entry itself. So we already talked about the airman type. If you are an officer, enlisted or civilian you can filter by that component. If you're active duty, guard or reserve you can filter by that, your AFSE, your career series, location, duration, any kind of information that's in the catalog you can filter by that information. So it's very user-friendly so it'll narrow your search so you don't have to look at all the entries in the catalog you can just focus in on what's relevant for you. - So you did mention that the DSE catalog was for any and all airmen. I mean, that's includes civilians, 'cause civilians (indistinct) development enlisted (indistinct) - Absolutely. - What, if you could say one thing to encourage folks to get onto MyVector and to check out the DSE catalog, what is it that you would tell them? - I would say that it's a very important tool if you're trying to deliberately plan what you're gonna do in the out years. So it becomes a really important tool for the individual and it also helps mentors and supervisors. In fact, I've done a presentation at a couple of events and I've had commanders, former commanders come up to me and say, I wish I had this when I was sitting in the chair because people look to me to help them on what they need to do next and I just didn't have a tool to help me with that. So this will help you deliberately plan your future, when you're trying to expand your learning experiences and get some of those skills and competencies, like I said you may not have a chance to do otherwise. So if you want to impact the air force mission in ways that you may not get a chance to do, in your AFSE, as an example, if you wanna be able to recruit and grow our future airmen as a force generator, it's not an opportunity everyone gets, so this is gonna be one way to do that. And these positions, these forced generator positions are a great way to help the air force defend this country of ours. So if you wanna expand what you know and what you can do for the air force beyond just your community, your career field, this is a way to do it. And you can bring some good ideas and knowledge you gain from this back to your functional community as well. - So it really sounds like this is a great tool for airmen who are aggressive learners and really wanna take their careers in their own hands. - Exactly, and I'll be the first to admit when I was wearing the uniform, I did not take an active role in deliberately planning my future, and I wish I'd had something like this to help me with that. So, but I think today's airmen are a lot smarter than I was at their age, so they are more interested in shaping what their futures are gonna look like, and this is probably a really good tool for them to use for that. - So what is one of the biggest questions that you guys get when it comes to the DSE catalog when you're briefing this or out and about? - Interestingly, we get a couple of them and I think one of the ones is whether a DSD is the same as a DSE. Both DSDs, developmental special duties and the DSEs are very similar, in that they both give you an opportunity to get experience outside what your primary FSE is, right? You're gonna be doing something that's different. Looking at the catalog today we only have about four of the, I believe it's 10 11 DSDs, are in the catalog. So we need to review the rest of them and see we if can add them into the catalog as well. But the DSEs in general, normally cast a wider net. So we include other things. Most DSD opportunities are actually assignments, right? You've got PCA or PCS to get that assignment, but the DSEs include more than just that. So we've got opportunities like the federal executive board or black belt that are details or things that you're gonna do that don't require you to move jobs but you're gonna be doing something a little bit different as an add on to what you're doing. So that's the differences there. The other big thing that we get that's important is how do we fit into the big picture for assignments? 'Cause a lot of folks think that the DSE catalog itself is the assignment tool. It is in MyVector, which talent management is in MyVector but it is not an assignment tool, it is just an awareness tool. So if you are looking to look for an assignment or to apply for an assignment, you still have to go through the regular channels whether it's the AMS or the talent marketplace, you still have to go through those. But the DSE is gonna help you, inform you to hopefully when you're looking for those assignments you're gonna make a more informed search on what you wanna do for your next career move. But we do work very closely with AFPC to make sure like we had talked earlier, that the information that we have is current and up to date. - So what's the future of the DSE catalog and AETC AEBD? - Well, we're gonna to grow the catalog. Like I said, we've got some opportunities that we're working with our sister services or something that came down the other day, talking about more joint opportunities and exercise opportunities that you listed in the catalog. So we're trying to expand it so the future I'm hoping that, a year or two from now that we're gonna have a lot of entries in there so that'll become more of an awareness tool for the force, so they can see everything that is available in our military, not just the Air Force. - This is a wonderful tool, I'm so glad we're getting the chance to discuss it. Thank you Jerry for your time and thank you listeners for joining us. Be sure to check out MyVector to access the Developmental Special Experiences catalog. As a reminder, you can follow Air Education and Training Command and the AETC command team on social media, we're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. From our entire AETC Public Affairs team, I'm Jennifer Gonzalez and talk to you next time on The Air force Starts Here podcast.