HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The U.S. Army Materiel Command hosted the first-ever Academia Day for career counselors of universities, colleges, trade/vocational schools and other academic institutions here, March 20.
More than 40 post-secondary institutions participated in the event to bridge the gap between students and federal jobs.
"Often times what we find is many of our students, potential interns from colleges as well as high schools, they are not aware of the enormous number of opportunities that are available in the United States Army and in this particular case, the United States Army Materiel Command," said Gen. Dennis L. Via, commanding general of the Army Materiel Command.
AMC hosted the event as an opportunity to promote plans to hire 1,000 high school and college student interns throughout AMC annually for the next five years starting in June 2015.
"Approximately 20 percent of our workforce is eligible to retire, so this is an opportunity to bring interns into many of our facilities and our programs," Via said.
AMC's chief of personnel William Marriott highlighted that employment opportunities are available for more than just veterans, with about 50 percent of AMC's current workforce non-veterans.
Via also gave career counselors a brief on AMC's capabilities and the wide range of career fields within the command such as engineering, acquisition, logistics, human resources, financial management, science and more.
"This is a foot in the door to see if this profession is something they may want to pursue one day," Via said. "The experience would significantly increase their opportunities to get hired into federal service."
Students hired through AMC's intern initiative would have the opportunity to apply for and gain a security clearance -- a valuable asset for all federal positions.
"Education plays a critical role and the counselors even more so play a role in being able to take the information they received today and submit it back to the students and build a passion, a desire, and an interest in joining the team," Via said.
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