Workera: Building AI-Powered Competency Assessment and Career Management Tools for the Air Force's Engineering and Technical Workforce

The Department of the Air Force’s ability to successfully compete and win against strategic competitors relies heavily on the technical expertise of its Airmen and Guardians. The digital transformation and accelerating speed of emerging technology development has left a need to develop competency frameworks and management systems to meet the continual competency needs of the force, especially of the Science & Engineering (S&E) workforce. The threat is imminent: China is pouring billions of dollars into initiatives to overtake the West as a leader in emerging technologies. In response, the DoD is focusing on attracting and retaining key STEM talent. In 2021, the Department released the Department of Defense STEM Strategic Plan FY2021 – FY2025, which outlines goal to “Attract the Nation and DoD’s current and future STEM workforce through multiple pathways to educational and career opportunities” and “Advance the efficiency and effectiveness of STEM education and workforce development programs, activities, and outreach through evaluation and assessment.” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. reaffirmed his commitment to competency-based frameworks in Action Order A (Airmen), outlining efforts to find and enhance universal skillsets that are important to all Airmen and Guardians. Stemming from this mandate, Air Force Materiel Command’s Director of Engineering and Technical Management (AFMC/EN) has created a Culture of Competencies Development Program (CCDP) —  a competency management effort for the S&E workforce.  The ultimate goal is to develop a competency model that encompasses all S&E job functions within AFMC/EN and develop a robust enterprise system that can support functions like succession planning for high-level positions such as Chief Engineer and enable smarter manpower allocation. The CCDP will provide critical information to resource, fund, plan, and execute an AFMC/EN enterprise system and customer needs-driven competencies database. Workera is the ideal commercial partner to help make the CCDP program a success and transform the manpower training and management across AFMC/EN. Workera’s precisely tailored approach to learning results in reductions to training time of 40-70% compared to traditional one-size-fits-all training, thanks to eliminating redundancy in coursework. Workera is an objective skills assessment and guidance platform that assesses an individual’s mastery in thousands of micro-skills needed for jobs in AI and data analytics via adaptive tests, and its algorithms then provide an incredibly customized list of open-source educational resources for a learner to fill in the individual gaps they may have. With Workera’s new SkillsAI solution, the time of building a competency model and assessment for a given domain is reduced by up to 90%.