CAREER TRAINING PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 37
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2002
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 19, 1969
• Content Type: MF

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DD/S 69-5241
19 NOV 1969
P I L E
ANDUM FOR: Executive Director -Comptroller
SU3JEC ;t?
Career Training Program
Attached is the proposal dated 12 November 1969 from the Director
of Training for the revision of the Career Training Program. No distribution
of this proposal has been made except to the Deputies' representatives who
participated in the drafting of this proposal. I am prepared to disseminate
copies to the members of the Deputies' Meeting when you give the word.
IBNED H. I. Bannerman
Att.
DD/S:RLB:ksb (19 Nov 69)
Distribution:
Orig - Adse w/att
1-ER
,r - DD/S Subject w/att & w/background
1 - DD/S Chrono
R. L. Bannerman
Deputy Director
for Support
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12 November 1969
The Career Training Program - A Proposal
I. Purpose
The Career Training Program has as its purpose the selection,
training, and early career development of young professional officers
who show unusual potential for outstanding service as Agency careerists.
The Program seeks to select annually not more than 50 candidates with
broad interests and the potential for successful performance in several
different categories of.Agency. endeavor. This Program is intended to
supplement, and not supplant, the Agency's direct hiring of professional
specialists. .
II. Management
Responsibility for the selection, training, initial placement, and early
career development of Career Trainees is vested by the Director of Cen-
tral Intelligence, through the Deputy Director for Support, in the Director
of Training, who receives policy guidance from, and consults with, the
Executive Director-Comptroller and the several Deputy Directors. The
Deputy, Directors are responsible for assigning to the Career Training
Staff officers. well-qualified'to.represent them in the tasks. of selecting,
.evaluating, counseling, and assigning -junior careerists. -Such assign-
ments should be of a rotational. nature,
III. Operation
A: Selection
Responsibility - Selection is made by the Career Training
Staff of the Office of training, in cooperation with the Office of
Personnel, from among highly ,promising external applicants .and
outstanding junior personnel already on duty in the Agency..
2. Criteria - Primary emphasis is placed on personal charac-
teristics, including intellectual ability and its effective use; previous
achievement in academic, vocational and other endeavors; integrity;
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evidence of potential leadership; adaptability and versatility; moti- .
vation to national service and the intelligence profession; and a dem-
onstrable interest and personal involvement in world affairs or public
administration. In practice, it is normal for a candidate to have a
bachelor's degree or its equivalent in related experience. Secondary
emphasis is placed on educational specialization and an individual's
immediate suitability for a particular job.
3. Candidate Sources - Criteria enumerated above are applied
to internal and- external candidates. alike.without pre-determined ratio,
to assure only that candidates selected from either source are of ex-
ceptional caliber.
IV. Appointment Grades and Promotion Policy
A. The Program normally, s elects candidates at the GS-9 or -10 levels,
.depending on the candidates' qualifications. Those selected at these grades
become eligible for. promotion to .the next higher grade approximately nine
months after commencing formal training in the Program, subject to actory performance. They become eligible for a second promotion approxi-
mately one year from date of the first, again subject to satisfactory perfor-
manc e.
B. In cases of extraordinary qualifications, candidates may be selected
at the GS-.11, or. -12 levels b.ut n.o.assurances can be given about. eligibility for
promotion beyond GS 12. . . .. .. .
C. Promotions, are not.auto.rnatic; they. must be earned through. effective
,performance.. Changes in a trainee's personal circumstances which. serve to
delay his training: or career development also. may.affect his promotion eligi-
bility.
D. The promotion policy in effect- at the time each, group of Career-
Trainees is selected will apply to that group so long as it is on the current
.roster of the .Program. It,is.ess.ential .that-promotion policy.fo.r Career T
rainees be observed uniformly throughout..the- Agency.
V. Training
A. Basic
All Career .Trainees are enrolled in a basic training cycle designed
to familiarize them with current and projected world problems; the role
of the U. S. in world affairs and its international activities; the purpose
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and framework of intelligence functions; and the responsibilities and
functions. of the Central Intelligence Agency. This cycle is presently
twelve weeks long but may be modified as developments make appro-
priate. In this basic stage attention is given to identifying a student's
interest in a specific line of work as well as determining his skills and
aptitudes. This basic cycle currently is offered to Career Trainees
exclusively, but in the longer run the Office of Training will attempt to
assimilate Career Trainees and non-Career Trainees to the greatest
extent possible.
B. Interim On-the-Job Assignments
1. An essential element of the Program is to extend trainee famil-
iarization and appreciation.of the variety of Agency functions and to stim-
ulate career motivation. Consequently, 'upon successful completion of
basic training, Career Trainees normally are placed on two successive
interim assignments not to exceed three months' duration each. Such
assignments, wherever feasible, should be in essentially different types
of work, either in different Directorates or certainly in different com-
ponents within the same Directorate. In some cases, TDY assignments
overseas maybe appropriate to the extent that they are neither prema-
ture, in terms of trainee qualifications, nor compromise purposeful
career development.
2. Interim assignments are. developed by the Career Training
Staff, in consultation with officials in operating components, to broaden
and enhance a particular trainee's qualifications. In effecting these
assignments, it is the Staff's responsibility to confer personally with
the trainee's projected supervisor to acquaint him with the trainee's
.background and to fix upon a planned use of him allowing for some de-
gree of responsible work and providing a basis for evaluation of his
performance.. Success in.this depends upon the degree to which super-
visors accept the responsibility to ensure meaningful and challenging
experiences that have a positive impact on trainee motivation.
VI. Early Career Development
A. Determination of Career Direction.
With findings in mind from the trainees' basic training and interim
assignment performances, a determination is made by the Career Train-
ing Staff, in consultation with the trainee, about the most appropriate
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career projection (Directorate) for each trainee. Specific prepar-
ation for such career then is begun by resort to advanced training
or full-time on-the-job assignment in whichever sequence is appro-
priate to the particular case.
B. Advanced Training
1. Advanced training is designed to develop and improve skills
for application in clandestine operations; intelligence collation, analy-
sis and production; support functions; or other pertinent types of work.
Agency training courses given as part of the Program at this stage of
development range in duration from six weeks to six months depending
on the type of preparation required.
2. The principal ingredient of this phase is enrollment of the
trainee in one or more of the advanced courses, as appropriate Oper-
ations Course I (and possibly II), Intelligence Production,, or Support
Services. Effort is made to enroll the trainee, whenever practicable,
in advanced course work at such time as he will be able to apply the
training as soon as possible after completion. In cases where the
trainee does not receive such training during the period of his formal
enrollment in the Program, it becomes the' responsibility of the oper-
ating component to which he is assigned to arrange such training at the
appropriate time.
3. Additional training which is desired by an operating component
but is 'not formally included in the. Career Training Program, e. g. ,
course work at outside institutions, language training, or other Office
of Training courses.,may be arranged:in consultation with the Career
Training Staff.
C. Initial Full-Time Assignment
1. Once the Career Trainee has successfully completed sufficient
training to satisfy requirements for his being assigned, a representa-
tive of the Staff confers with officials of an appropriate Career Service
or operating component to determine the particular assignment which
would best match the trainee's qualifications with the component.'s need
for junior officers.
2. An essential element in the effective implementation of a proper
assignment for the trainee is personal consultation between the Staff rep-
res.entative and the projected supervisor.., The Career Training Staff
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representative is charged, first, with providing pertinent information
and discussing the trainee's evaluative records with the supervisor,
and second, with devising together with the supervisor a two- or three-
year use and development plan for the trainee, including where feasible
additional internal and external training.
3. In some instances, advanced training will take place prior to
the trainee's being assigned, and in other instances it may be deferred
to a more appropriate time.
P. Monitoring the Assignment
1. The trainee normally remains in Career Trainee status during
the first year of his initial assignment. During this time both the super-
visor and the trainee provide to the Career Training Staff periodic prog-
ress reports from which judgment may be made about his effectiveness
and his suitability for career development in the parent component.
Adjustments can be made as dictated by circumstances and after dis-
cussions with interested officials, . These adjustments include modifi-
cation of assignment, remedial training, reassignment within the com-
ponent or elsewhere in the Agency, or separation from the Agency.
2. If by the end of one year there is mutual satisfaction with the
assignment and the proposed development of the trainee, he is trans-
.ferred from the Career Training Program into a regular Career Ser-
vice for further development as a professional officer,
3. Thereafter, the Career Training Program is provided for a
period of three years with copies of personnel actions relating to the
former trainee, copies of his Fitness Reports, and other information
which can be used to evaluate and guide the Program's efforts to se-
lect, train, counsel, and assign new trainees. In addition, the Office
of Training is authorized to solicit and receive feedback from former
trainees, as well as other students, to assess the validity of its train-
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Support
SUBJECT The Career Training Program
C' /I15 m&?-e,,97
84-00780R0031001130) 1969
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FILE
REFERENCE . Memo for DD/S, dated 7 July 1969, from Director of Training
Subject: Same as above
1. As requested by your office, a brief discussion was held with the
Director of each of the offices of the DD/S. This memorandum presents
therefore, a summary of their opinions concerning the essential aspects of
the CT Program as it pertains to the Support Directorate. The general
curriculum, specific courses contained and duration of training were areas
not covered.
2. The expansion of the CT Program in FY 1967 and FY 1968 to 275
trainees per year created a number of problems in terms of training,
placement, evaluation and supervision. These were covered rather completely
in Mr. Cunningham's memorandum and need not be reiterated here. However, it
is pertinent to point out the concern of the offices concerning the assign-
ment of career trainees on a "quota" basis and in numbers that could not be
absorbed or managed adequately on a long-term basis. Certainly the size of
the CT Program should be reduced considerably from this 275 per year figure.
3. Further, several offices favored greater input to the program from
employees already on duty. Internal selection would permit basic office
training to be completed before the employee, as a CT, considers himself
above the range of fundamental component orientation. It would at the same
time also provide a greater degree of career incentive for current employees
who have already demonstrated their Agency interest and motivation through
several years of employment. This opinion may also be valid for other
Directorates.
4. Within the DDS we are providing specific services, some rather
technical in nature, to support the over-all mission and activities of the
Agency. Skilled professionals are required if we are to discharge our
responsibilities effectively. In general, we are looking for career
trainees who possess more than the native qualities of leadership, aptitude,
motivation, intellectual ability and versatility. In addition to these
attributes, we are looking for individuals with education background or
related experience to meet the specific requirements of the Support
Directorate offices. And, as a more immediate goal, we are looking for the
leadership or managerial potential to the Division or Branch Chief level.
The ability of these individuals to reach the more Senior Staff level
positions will be surfaced or can be developed in direct proportion to their
demonstrated potential.
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5. While the specialist was highly favored as a candidate over the
generalist, the assignment of a limited number of generalists was
acceptable. Precise numbers for each office was not discussed, although
I believe, one or two should be the limit.
6. A college degree was basically accepted as a requirement for the
CT Program, although there was discussion on this point in view of some
apparently qualified employees who do not have degrees.
7. The present practice of recruiting at the GS-08 or GS-09 level
with periodic promotions to GS-10 and GS-11 is considered appropriate.
There is some concern, however, in that reductions under BALPA and OPRED
make placement difficult and the periodic promotions accorded the career
trainees restricts the promotion possibilities of other employees who are
both qualified and deserving. Understandably, the point was made that if
the CT is nominated by an office and returned to that office after training,
this concern is essentially dispelled.
8. There was agreement that at some point in the CT's career, he must
become competitive with other employees for both assignments and promotions.
The GS-11 level appeared to be the logical point in time. His initial
component assignment will have been made and the promotions initiated by
the SJ career service will have been completed.
9. In some respects, the timing of promotions relates to the duration
of training. Validation of performance by OTR while the CT is in training
justifies their promotion recommendation. It would appear that after the
CT has been assigned, further promotion recommendations originated by the
SJ career service should be coordinated with the office concerned to
validate performance in a working environment.
10. The following recommendations are submitted for your consideration
at this time. As the review of the CT Program progresses and areas of
training, placement and post-training evaluation are more definitively
explored, additional recommendations will be forwarded.
A. The DDS endorse the position that the size of the CT Program
be reduced. I would suggest a range of 60-80 per year.
B. The selection of candidates for the CT Program should include
a greater percentage of internals particularly during the period of
position reductions.
C. The selection criteria for the CT Program should be firmly
established (and provided to Office Heads for guidance in nominating
internals).
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D. The career trainees assigned to the Support Directorate
should for the most part be skilled professionals. A limited
number of generalists can be accommodated.
E. The career trainee candidates should enter the program at
the GS-08/9 level and follow a uniform promotion policy. The SJ
career service should initiate promotions through the GS-11 level.
Coordination with the office concerned should be effected if the
CT has been assigned.
uinei, reer anagemen
and Training Staff, OC
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0780R003100130003-3 ET' 15 OCT 1969
~~/S~y- 4L70 3
M tAI DL Fa : Deputy Director tar Support.
SUBJECT : The Career T: .f inn Pree? e
REM for DD/S, dated 7 au,r 1969, f Director of Tr
Subject: Same as abov
1. As regtaas i ' your of'i"ice, a xax'ieef discussion was held with the
Director of each of the o `fices of the De/8. This memorw0m Wesents
therefore, a sumary of their r,piriit us ccaxa terai tg the essential aspects of
the CT Program as it perteina to the Wt Directorate. The general
c rriculx=, specific curses chained aid .duratidn oC training we areas 7
not covered.
2. The expansion of the CT Program iA : 1967 and T f 1963 to 275
train per year created a rmamber of pr . in tam of try,
placement, evaluation and supe l siocn. These were covered rather oc 3 etely
.in W. cunningham;a memorandum wA nee not 'be reite &t,eed here. Hawww, it
is pertinent to point out the ecaftm of the offices concerning the assign-
ment of career trainees on a "quaW basis end in musbers that could not be
absorbed or managed adequately on a long-term basis. Certain the size figure.
the CT Poo r should be reduced consideerab1,Y from this 275 per year
6 i
3. Further, several offices favored greater t to the por am q %L
d bef the p3+t7l:ee, as a CT, considers himself
be c
i t
-
o
n
above the range of ftitneia rental c oneut orientation. It wed at the Baas
time also provide a tar dee a off' ems' a tiv'e f current employees
who have already demonstrated their Agere' interest and motivation thrwsb
several years of p1t. This opinion easy also be valid for other
Directorates.
ILLEGIB
It. t?Jithin the DD/S we are providing specific services, some rather
technical in nature, to support the vve - .aaU mission and activities of the
.Mercy. t3kilicd. Professionals we recjl iLrea. if we we to discharge our
responsibilities effectively. In general, w 'e+ are l for eszeer
trainees ratio possess more than the native qualitielea of le a rship, aptitude,
motivation, inte3l.ect a ability and vac raratili r. In addition to these
attri'bates, are lc ing for ndividu+als with ed cation bw-k Or
related experience to meet the specific require to of the Support
Directorate offices. And, as a more iaaxned.iate goai, we we looking Roar the
leadership or managerial. potential to the Division or Branch Chief leare3.4
The ability of these individuals to reach the more senior Staff elo their
positions will be surftced or can be developed in direct p'2't
d netrated potential.
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j. ,'bile the specialist was highly ftv-ored as a candidate over the
al isi: the assi tent of a limiteed rr mbenr of generalists was
the CT is neiinateci by an office and retu ood to that office after trainii,,
There is some concern, however, in that reductions u t Bit.PA acid 0
make placement difficult and the periodic pa.~c tions a orded the career
trainees restricts the promotion possibilities of other employees who are
'both uAl iV ed and deserving. Understatad.aU ~, the point was made that if
with periodic promotions to G$-l0 and GS-11 is considered a
ppropriate. A college degree WV q basically accept an a requirement for the
CT Frozen, although there was discussion on this paint in view of some
apparently cua1.ified eilgyees who do not have decTe *a.
7 The present practice of recruitin ; at the 08-08 or CE-09 level
acceptable. Precise mobers for each office was not discussed, althouch
I believe, one or two should be the limit.
c?r vrnonent a ssitmment will have been made and the pr tions initiated by
:
become *cc:: eti.tive with other a pl,oyeec for both assignments and promotions.
s e e ennt that at sane pa'!nt in the CT's career, he must
TMaere ?ra
this concern is essentially dispel.e-
I L L l U I tS the UJ career service will have been comqu.ete e.
of trainiric. Validation of performance by UrR while the CT. is in trai ng
9. In some rests, the timing of promotions relates to the duration
CT has been assigneed, f=ther promotion recanmenaa .os Origzn?.i u `Jr ,'
.3J deer service should be coordinated with the cdTice concerned to
explored E .itional recommendations :rill be rorwarae a.
trainixr : placement and post-training ev'altation are more definitively
at this time. < s the review of the CT Program progresses and areas or
.10. The following recommendations ? re submitted for your consideration
validate performance in a working enviraament.
ILLEG
ILLEGI
ILLEGI
A. The ta/s endorse the position that the size of the CT Program d
a greater percentage of internals p ;icularly during the period or
B. The selection of candidates for the CT Program should include!
be reduced. I w(uld suggest a range of 60-80 per year.
established (and provided to Office Heads t guidance in nomiaat
C. The selection criteria for the CT Frogs should. be firmly
position reductions.
internals) .
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ILLEGI
ILLEGIB
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The oars! trainees acai ed to the l3uppoxt Directorate
DD
,
ILLEGIB shau1d for the rnorxt part be skilled prate ssione U . A limited
bomber of generalists can be weusmaric3.adte:d.
The cerear trainee candidates ishc*iid enter the proms at
the C -O8/9 level and 'o to t a unifcrm j caootioU policy- The T
career service should initiate pra ctiOrL thrrugh the Ge-11 level..
Coordination with the office conserved dhhould be effected if the
CT bas been aesigaed.
25X1
chief., career t
aaad Training Staff, OC
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2 8 July 1969
The attached was presented by Mr. Cunningham - -
though not exactly in its present form - - at the Deputies'
Meeting. In point of fact, Hugh's comments seem to
focus upon three possibilities: (a) abolish the CT
Program; (b) totally restructure the CT Program;
(c) keep CT Program "as it is, but with changes."
Everybody agreed that there is certainly a need for a
new statement of concept/criteria and also which ever
way the Program goes, there must be a great reduction
in the numbers of "externals."
The subject Kxi 1 x evidently closed with
"direction" to Hugh Cunningham to write up a single
proposal (evidently Hugh is the one charged with mak-
ing the firm recommendation for one of the alternatives-
(a), (b), or (c) - noted above).
Each of the DD's is then to appoint a man who will
work with Hugh on "perfecting or implementing the
proposal." (Note: this last underscoring is miie---
because I don't think it was really clear whether Hugh
plus the DD men or Hugh alone would prepare a single
proposal for review.)
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DATE
INITIALS
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ACTION
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FORM NO. 237 Use previous editions GPO : 1969 0 - 297-542 (40)
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Colonel White
Attached is Mr. Cunningham's summary of
problems in the Career Training Program. It is
suggested that this be placed before the Deputies'
Meeting of 23 July. If you concur I will have copies
made and circulated to the attendees at the Deputies'
Meeting.
woe R.- L. bai -
FORM NO. 101 REPLACES FORM 10-101
I AUG 54 WHICH MAY BE USED.
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SECRET
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Support
X1
SUBJECT : The Career Training Program
1. This memorandum summarizes some of the problems of the
Career Training Program in a manner intended to be suitable for dis-
cussion by Colonel White and the Deputy Directors.
2. Over the years the Career Training Program has developed
serious problems of purpose, scope, and management which require
fundamental rethinking. The Office of Training is at work on such a
study, and will eventually propose important revisions of nearly all
aspects of the Program. Some of these will concern the content, dur-
ation, and timing of courses. Others will require Agency-wide under-
standing of the ways in which changing Agency needs and practices have
altered the circumstances in which the Program operates. The most
important of these problems are identified in what follows, in the hope
that discussion at the top of the Agency will furnish a practical new
basis for the Office of Training's further study and recommendations.
Basic Concept
`'f
3. There is no longer a basic concept for the Program which is
uniformly accepted within the A ency. The simple, broad definition of
the Program's purpose in was adequate until about 1965: It was
to be "one means of.. . selecting and preparing highly qualified young men
and women for professional careers in the Agency." That this objective
was achieved in the early years is demonstrable from the performance J
of many products of the Program. One is a GS-17 and head of an Office,
another has been the Director's Special Assistant for Vietnamese Affairs,
another is Chief of the Estimates Staff; at least seven are supergrades,
10 are GS-15s, 63 are GS-14s, a good many have been station chiefs or
held other positions of comparable responsibility, 64 have been assigned
to the Midcareer Executive Development Course, and 21 have been selected
for one or another of the senior service colleges or other types of external
training of comparable distinction.
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4. Then expansion over several years swelled the ranks of Trainees
past the number that can have any hope of rising to senior positions. Since
25X9 1951 a total of Trainees have entered the Program; of these) have 25
25X9 entered since 1 January 1965=from outside the Agency from inside). 25
25X9 Some are now on duty. It is no longer clear what either the Agency or
the individual Trainee can realistically expect. A disparity of views as to
the Program's purposes has been widening for several years. Significant
numbers of officers at all levels and in all components now look to the Pro-
gram to serve one or another of the following functions:
a. to provide carefully selected and trained young professional
officers of top talent, suitable for development as leaders in one or
another field of activity as their individual aptitudes and the Agency's
changing needs would make appropriate--in short, potential general-
ists;
b. to be a source of young officers for the bulk of junior pro-
fessional positions, recruited for skills and experience already
acquired--in short, specialists;
c. to serve as an employee pool from which to satisfy crash
personnel requirements without regard to long-term career con-
siderations;
d. to provide status and training to young professional and
semi-professional employees who have performed well and plan
to stay in the Agency;
e. to provide an administrative mechanism to rechannel
young employees from one component to another or to afford
staff status to contract personnel who have served the Agency
well.
5. To some extent the Program has become a victim of its earlier
successes. Some fairly senior officers have allowed the false notion to
arise that no-one outside the Program can hope to advance. (Recent
controversies over the exclusion of some internal applicants and con-
tract employees, causing much ill feeling and even some resignations,
can be traced to this damaging misconception.) Expansion since 1965
inevitably brought some decline in quality--not in those qualifications
that can be measured, such as education, but in intangibles like moti-
vation, intellectual curiosity, and eagerness to learn. Training which
Approved For Release 2003/0
r R 1 DP84-0078OR003100130003-3
1M-2T
 Approved For Release 200MM-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
was once suitable for a fairly homogeneous group is less and less appro-
priate for an agglomeration of specialists earmarked very early for one
Office or Directorate and no other. Pressures of workload and disparities
of view as to function have kept OTR from adapting its courses enough to
keep up with the changing situation, especially as to who gets what train-
ing and for how long. The large numbers of Trainees, colliding with
obstacles like BALPA, have made placement more difficult and dashed
the hopes of those bright young people now two or three years out of train-
ing. The number and rate of resignations have been rising, especially
among those placed in routine jobs with little challenge and no prospect
of change or of advancement beyond GS-11. We have to ask ourselves
whether the confusion and turmoil surrounding the very concept of the
Career Training Program are not tending to drive out the Trainees with
gumption and ambition, and to leave with us those who are satisfied to
become good gray bureaucrats.
6. For years the Program looked most of all for native qualities
of personality, intellectual ability, aptitude, motivation tem erament,
versatility, adaptability, and potential leadership. I I published
on 22 November 1963 (of all unhappy days), is still in effect t ough re-
vision has been in process for several years. It sets only these minimum
criteria: "...a candidate must have a college education or, in the case
of on-duty personnel, its equivalent in experience.... The candidate must
also be qualified to undertake assignments of any degree of sensitivity and
be medically qualified for full duty/general. "
7. The decision to enlarge the Program to 275 Trainees per year
for FY 1967 and FY 1968 necessarily represented a shift of emphasis.
Since the Agency now looked to the Program to fill many more junior
slots in a way that would get its current work done, with less attention
to future developments, there had to be more emphasis on finding candi-
dates who already had a high degree of specific skill. This trend became
even more pronounced when in early 1968 the Program was severely cut
back because of BALPA and related stringencies. In general, Trainees
were by now recruited not so much for their long-range potential as to
fill specific current requirements. For FY 1970 the Directorate of Sup-
port wants three investigators, five technicians, three lawyers, eight
business or accounting majors, and nine Support generalists. The Direc-
torate of Intelligence wants mostly MAs in ten specified fields or bach-
elors' degrees in certain sciences, engineering, or mathematics.
Approved For Release 2003/0
25
 Approved For Release 2001-10
The Clandestine Service has many fewer possible openings than before,
but has fairly recently argued that the tighter personnel situation requires
an upgrading of standards, and therefore stipulates that henceforth Trainees
should hold advanced degrees (mostly MAs in various area studies) and pre-
sent either an intermediate knowledge of some language or a high aptitude
for languages. All these developments have made it expedient to move all
the way back to the initial interview the decision as to which Directorate
a Trainee would join, and to reach that decision before his own acquaint-
ance with the Agency and his performance in training can help influence
the assignment. In so doing we have abandoned what used to be one of the
most successful features of the Program. Instead, we now give training
of which a good deal is entirely inappropriate (for example, the Ops Famil-
iarization Course for Trainees already slated for the DDI), and increase
the dissatisfaction of the Trainees with the rigidity of both training sched-
ules and placement.
8. In a meeting on 6 November 1968 the Director emphasized his
own continuing interest in the Program. He underlined the necessity of
selecting only the best (now made easier by the new restriction on num-
bers), but instead of concentrating on advanced degrees, he expressed a
criterion more nearly like that of earlier years. To quote from Mr. Wat-
tles's memorandum of the same day to his recruiters, Mr. Helms "has
in effect directed that applicants selected for the Program have demon-
strated by experience, interest, academic focus, or by any other means
you can think of a true, real interest in other countries and the inter-
national affairs of the United States. " This seems to come closer to the
old concern for personal attributes than to the new emphasis on graduate
degrees and special skills.
9. If we are to return to choosing young people primarily for
promise, character, personality, and above all motivation for Intelli-
gence as a career and a profession, then we must be ready later on to
provide them with the special skills the Agency will eventually require
of them. An interesting evidence that this is possible is to be seen in
OER's practice of sending junior officers to the Foreign Service Insti-
tute's intensive course in economics. But if skills are to be the most
important criteria, then the whole Program ought to be drastically re-
vised, or even abolished: Recruitment, training, and placement can-
not be effectively managed centrally by a Program designed for a quite
different purpose. In particular, the effort to manage these functions
centrally for large groups requires more precise forecasting of vacan-
cies than can be handled by a Program which requires up to two years'
Approved For Release 2003/04/ h r84-00780R003100130003-3
 Approved For Release 2003~~tt~~ ~Q p?A-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
A
lead-time, and the whole process is more vulnerable to every twist and
turn in budgetary and personnel considerations than it would be if it were
divided among the Directorates. Meanwhile, if we keep on trying to find
both high motivation for an Intelligence career and the impressive gradu-
ate degrees, we shall keep on finding that they do not often exist in the
same person to a degree that will satisfy the Agency. Advanced degrees
are highly salable commodities in a highly competitive market, and it is
no wonder that recent graduates tend to look on CIA as just one more job
opportunity like many others.
10. My own tentative recommendation is to return to the old con-
cept and leave the recruiting of already trained specialists to the Direc-
torates. It would be a great loss if the Agency did not try to keep on find-
ing young people of high general promise, introduce them to the work of
the Agency as a whole, and gradually identify through training the interests
and aptitudes which would fit them especially for one line of work or an-
other. Without such a Program we would lose a valuable means of empha-
sizing the Agency's essential unity of function, and would instead encourage
a segregation into tribes speaking different tongues. That danger is al-
ready present among us, and we need every means we can devise to ward
it off. I believe we could manage a small Program to this end without
creating the old bugaboo of an elite corps; at the same time managers
throughout the Agency could recruit and develop the large numbers of
junior professionals they need in addition to those the Program could
supply.
Pay and Advancement
11. Career Trainees as a group present two special problems,
especially when we require those highly salable graduate degrees:
a. The Agency's starting salaries and promotion policies
for Trainees are not even competitive with those elsewhere in
the Government, much less with those in business. The Manage-
ment Intern Program of the Civil Service Commission starts
young officers at GS-09 and promotes them to GS-11 after one
year, to GS-12 a year later, and to GS-13 eighteen months after
that. The FBI starts its agents at GS-10. Foreign Service
Officers accept low pay and slow advancement at first because
of the high rewards in prospect; the State Department has many
more FSO-1 s than CIA has GS-18 s, not to mention the hundr ed-
odd ambassadorships. By contrast, the CIA practice of start-
ing many Trainees at GS-07 or GS-08, and advancing them one
grade at a time, makes recruitment of the best talents steadily
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 Approved For Release 20~5IA-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
more difficult; even the lesser talents can find higher pay and
quicker advancement elsewhere, as many exit interviews attest.
This fact reinforces the point about criteria for selection: We
must find the bright young man early, before he has that graduate
degree, and bring him up the way he should go. The education
we complete for him after that can deepen his commitment to the
intelligence profession.
b. Promotion policy with respect to Trainees has not been
uniform throughout the Agency, and of course the Trainees know
this. Any change in promotion policy once the Trainees are on
board is resentfully regarded as welshing on promises made dur-
ing recruitment. This subject has received sufficient attention
recently not to require extended discussion here.
12. We should consider adopting the practice of the Civil Service
Commission for its management interns. If the hump and the scarcity
of higher grades make this impossible, then we should consider skipping
GS-08 and GS-10 as many other parts of Government do for their profes-
sionals. Whatever else we do, we ought to be able to state a consistent
policy, Agency-wide, affecting the promotions of all Trainees (and prob-
ably other professionals as well) up through, say, GS- 11, and undertake
not to change it for those recruited under that policy until they have reach-
ed that grade. In order to avoid misinterpretation or misremembering of
oral statements made during recruitment or at entrance on duty, it would
be helpful to present the candidates with a written statement.
The Training Phase
13. Gradual changes elsewhere in the Program have brought serious
and costly contradictions into the training phase. Since 1958 the "Integrated
Training Program" has included extensive early segments intended to help
the Trainee and the Agency explore each other until the most suitable place-
ment is recognized on both sides. But nowadays the elaborate trai'rling ex-
ercises in elementary tradecraft or writing OCI bulletins serve no such
useful purpose for people whose destination is already decided. The effort
in these courses to measure aptitudes is becoming an irritating waste of
time. It would be far better to concentrate on familiarizing the Trainees
with the work of the whole Agency--not the details of technique but what
each component does and why, and how they all fit together. If we return
to the generalist principle we can still use these courses to measure apti-
tudes, but if we deal largely with specialists they will at least have a more
practical idea of how their specialty fits into the whole complex framework.
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 Approved For Release 2003/ t.tlIDP84-00780R003100130003-3
14. We are thinking of revising the whole training program for
young professionals (not Trainees only) to sharpen the focus successively
on the three separate aspects of the training function at this early stage:
first, a broad orientation to Intelligence as a career in public service,
for all newcomers; then a true familiarization with the work of the Agency,
for all Trainees and perhaps others, omitting elaborate examination of
techniques; and finally, for the Trainees of each Directorate as appropri-
ate, intense concentration on the specific skills the Directorate knows
they will need. The present Program is more or less like that already,
but contains a number of important anomalies that will take considerable
time to correct. (For example, the Ops Familiarization Course spends
many hours on the writing of cables and dispatches in the Clandestine
Service; this is pointless for people going to the DDI and DDS, and belongs
in the later course for Clandestine Service personnel only.) Along with all
this we need to re-examine possibilities for on-the-job training for up to
several months at Headquarters, both to help determine eventual place-
ment and to vary the scene for impatient young people who have already
spent many years in classrooms.
Considerations of Management
15. The first question is how many and what kinds of Trainees the
Agency can use in challenging assignments. We await Mr. Wattles's
study of resignations with great interest, but we already know that lack
of challenge is a frequent cause of resignation among Trainees who have
been in the Agency for several years. Just as some young professionals
outside the Program imagine that they are therefore second-class citizens,
so some Trainees get the same impression about themselves. It is regret-
tably true, for example, that they see a great difference in prestige and
prospects for advancement between the "production" Offices of the DDI and
the Offices which perform services for the producers. In Support and the
Clandestine Service they do not seem to be prepared for the great amount
of humdrum work like name-tracing and security checks, and tend to judge
their prospects by the speed with which they can get overseas. Some of
this unreality stems from offhand inattention on the part of their super-
visors. But phrases like "too little work to do, " "too little responsibility,
"bureaucracy and overstaffing" recur with discouraging frequency in the
exit interviews.
16. The Program should be kept small enough not to be overwhelmed
by problems like BALPA, especially because of the effects of sizable re-
trenchments on the placement and prospects of young Trainees early in
Approved For Release 20039
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 Approved For Release 2003?OR 4-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
their careers. In this connection we ought to pay special attention to the
possibility of selecting more Trainees internally- -developing talents with-
out swelling the rosters. The rule of thumb by which we have selected one
internal for every three externals is surely too arbitrary under present
personnel ceilings. It might be better over the next year or two to accept
as many internals as can meet whatever standards are agreed on--though
unfortunately we have no idea how many that might be. It might even be
advisable to conduct a whole training cycle for internals only. Such a
device might have several benefits:
a. We could confirm or refute the hypothesis that the Agency
is overlooking a prime source of undeveloped talent. The one-to-
three ratio and the manner in which internal applications are con-
trolled by the Directorates prevent us from testing that possibility.
X1
b. Concentrating on this source of supply, conveniently at
hand for extensive interviewing and study, might help us all to
narrow our differences as to the most effective criteria for selec-
tion. Ospecifically encourages on-duty personnel to apply
for the Program, but some components set up more obstacles than
others; we might lessen this disparity.
c. While we were sorting out our criteria OTR could be adapt-
ing its training program. This slow step-by-step process could be
speeded somewhat by concentrating on the training needed by people
who have been in the Agency for some time, while revising the ele-
ments of training most needed by new externals.
X1
d. We could give useful new attention to on-the-job training
(also required by0 incidentally), which in recent years
has fallen into disrepair. Two years ago the Program lost the
post-training period of six months, which had been used to deter-
mine the Trainees' suitability for their projected assignments,
and also lost the 13-week on-the-job training between courses.
Nowadays we hear considerable griping from Trainees about pre-
training and interim on-the-job assignments: unplanned, point-
less, even menial.
17. Gradual erosion of the Program's managerial responsibility
for its Trainees over the past couple of years raises the question whether
there are too many managers. After losing responsibility for arranging
SECRET
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 Approved For Release 20
on-the-job training, the Program began to lose contact with the place-
ment process. For years the Program's staff personnel had negotiated
the assignment of a Trainee directly with the receiving branch. Then the
process came to include consideration and evaluation of the Trainee by a
special selection board in the Clandestine Service, and by the personnel
officer of the DDI. These developments had the effect of removing the
Program staff even further from post-training contact with a Trainee and
follow-up of his on-the-job performance. Early this year a representative
of the Clandestine Service began to review applications received by the
Program, with an eye to identifying those suitable for the Clandestine Ser-
vice before the candidates were invited in for interviews. This review was
in addition to those of three Clandestine Service careerists assigned to the
Program staff. When the Program's three primary missions of selection,
training, and placement are examined against these erosions of the respon-
sibilities of the Program staff, it is not surprising that the Chief of the
Career Training Program concludes that it can hardly be called a Program
at all.
18. My own conclusion is that the principal recent problem of the
Program, and the one which created or intensified most of the others, has
been its inflated size. That difficulty is being corrected, but perhaps we
ought to go further. At any rate, now is the time to examine all our as-
sumptions, expectations, and practices. The Office of Training will wel-
come whatever practical guidance from the top this catalogue of problems
can elicit. These problems are small compared with some the Agency
created for itself in the past: It is somewhat comforting to compare them
with those of another Program ("Mobilization, " 1951), which directed the
training staff to prepare to take on 300 Trainees per month, for a total of
900 at any one time- -and eventually 18 turned up. We have come a long
way.
25
U
Director of Training
SECRET
9
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 Approved For Release 2003/04/29 : CIA-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
Colonel White
Attached is Mr. Cunningham's summary of
problems in the Career Training Program. Isis
suggested that this be placed before the Deputies'
Meeting of 23 July- If you concur I will have copies
made and circulated to the attendees at the Deputies'
Meeting.
No 1. L BOOM
R. L. Bannerman
8 JULIO
DD/S:RLB:ksd (8 July 6?~
Distribution: f(5"~- /
Orig - Adse w/attt,(DD/S 69-3133)
X - DD/S Subject w/copy DD/S 69-3133
1 - DD/S Chrono
DD/S 69-3133: Memo dtd 3 July 69 for DD/S fr DTR, subj : The Career Training Program
Approved For Release 2003/04/29 : CIA-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
 Approved For Release 2003/04/29 : CIA-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
X1
Director of Personnel
5 E-56 Hqs.
Attached is a copy of Hugh Cunningbam's report
on the Career Training Program. I have Sent copies
to the Executive Director proposing that this be put
on the Deputies' agenda. Please control this report
until I hear from the Executive Director that he
accepts it as an agenda item.
. Bannerman
8 JUL 1969
Deputy Director for Support 7 D-26 Hqa.
Distribution:
Orig - Adse w/copy DD/S 69-3133
X - DD/S Subject t/c
1 - DD/S Chrono
DD/S 69-3133: Memo dtd 3 July 69 for DD/S fr DTR, subj: The Career Training Program
Approved For Release 2003/04/29 : CIA-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
DD/S: RLB: ksd (8 July 69)
 ..Approved For Release 2003/04/29 : CIA-RDP84-00780R00310013r? 3-P""46
X1
HUE]
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Support
SUBJECT : The Career Training Program
1. This memorandum summarizes some of the problems of the
Career Training Program in a manner intended to be suitable for dis-
cussion by Colonel White and the Deputy Directors.
2. Over the years the Career Training Program has developed
serious problems of purpose, scope, and management which require
fundamental rethinking. The Office of Training is at work on such a
study, and will eventually propose important revisions of nearly all
aspects of the Program.. Some of these will concern the content, dur-
ation, and timing of courses. Others will require Agency-wide under-
standing of the ways in which changing Agency needs and practices have
altered the circumstances in which the Program operates. The most
important of these problems are identified in what follows, in the hope
that discussion at the top of the Agency will furnish a practical new
basis for the Office of Training's further study and recommendations.
Basic Concept
DD/S /,~Z_Z a,3
?
3. There is no longer a basic concept for the Program which is
uniformly accepted within the A ency. The simple, broad definition of
the Program.'s purpose in was adequate until about 1965: It was
to be "one means of.. , selecting and preparing highly qualified young men
and women for professional careers in the Agency. That this objective
was achieved in the early years is demonstrable from the performance
of many products of the Program. One is a GS-17 and head of an Office,
another has been the Director's Special Assistant fo:: Vietnamese Affairs,
another is Chief of the Estimates Staff; at least seven are supergrades,
10 are GS-15s, 63 are GS-14s, a good many have been station chiefs or
held other positions of comparable responsibility, 64 have been assigned
to the Midcareer Executive Development Course, and 21 have been selected
for one or another of tl.e senior service colleges or other types of external
training of comparable distinction.'
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-00780R0031001300d t 4.a is
E'c~d^d tram zut,
duwngra,'iu; znd
deazasilica i n
 Approved For Release 2003/OAIaQ P84-007808003100130003-3
4. Then expansion over several years swelled the ranks of Trainees
past the number that can have any hope of rising to senior positions. Since
X. 1 a toGalo 7. rainces have entered the Prograr ; of these =have 25X'
entered since 1 January 1965 I rom outEdde the Agency, =r6nn inside) 25X
c cnc:F__J x?e rxrw on duty. It is no loner c).car ~,vhat either the Agency c::
the individual Trainee can realistically expect. A. disparity of views as to
the Program's purposes has been widening for several years. Significant
numbers of officers at all levels and in all components now look to the Pro-
gram, to serve one or another of the following functions;
a. to provide carefully selected and trained young professional
officers of top talent, suitable for development as leaders in ons' or
another field of activity as their individual aptitudes and the Agencys
changing needs would make a.ppr opr?iate--in short, potential general-
b. b. to be a source of young officers for the bulk of junior pro-
fessional positions, recruited for skills and experience already
acquired-.-in short, specialists;
c. to serve as an employee pool from which to satisfy crash
personnel requirements without regard to long ...ter m career con-
sideration's;
d. to provide status and training to young professional and
semi-professional employees who have performed, well and plan
to stay in the .Agency;
e, to provide an administrative mechanism to rechannel
young employees from one component to another or to afford
staff status to contract personnel who have served the Agency
well.
5. To some extent the Program has become a victim of its earlier
successes. Some fairly senior officers have allowed the false notion to
arise that no-one outside the Program can hope to advance. (Recent
controversies over the exclusion of some internal applicants and con-
tract employees, causing much ill feeling and even some resignations,
can be traced to 10.u:: damaging misconception.) a'.Npansi.on since 1965
inevitably brought sofa a cicr~lin in quality-.-.not i)-L thr 8c. qualifications
that can be measured, such as education, but, i intangibles li.l. a moti-
vation, intellectual curiosity, and eagerness to learn. Training which
Approved For Release.2003/spy --CIA-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
RUI
 Approved For Release 200 A-RDP84-00780R003100130003-3 .
was once suitable for a fairly homogeneous group is less and less appro-
priate for an agglomeration of specialists earmarked very early for one
Office or Directorate and no other. Pressures of workload and disparities
of view as to function have kept OTR from adapting its courses enough to
keep up with the changing situation, especially as to who gets what train-
ing and for how long. The large numbers of Trainees, colliding with
obstacles like BALPA, have made placement more difficult and dashed
the hopes of those bright young people now two or three years out of train-
ing. The number and rate of resignations have been rising, especially
among those placed in routine jobs witt_k little challenge and no prospect
of change or of advancement beyond GS-ll. We have to ask ourselves
whether the confusion and turmoil surrounding the very concept of the
Career Training Program are not tending to drive out the Trainees with
gumption and ambition, and to leave with us those who are satisfied to
become good gray bureaucrats.
6. For years the Program looked most of all for native qualities
of personality, intellectual. ability, aptitude, motivation, temperament,
versatility, adaptability, and potential leadership, published
on 22 November 1963 (of all unhappy days), is still in effect though re-
vision has been in process for several years. It sets only these minimum
criteria: "...-a candidate must have a college education or, in the case
of on-duty personnel, its equivalent in experience.... The candidate must
also be qualified to undertake assignments of any degree of sensitivity and
be medically qualified for full duty/general. "
7. The decision to enlarge the Program to 275 Trainees per year
for FY 1967 and FY 1968 necessarily represented a shift of emphasis.
Since the Agency now looked to the Program to fill many more junior
slots in a way that would get its current work done, with less attention
to future developments, there had to be more emphasis on finding candi-
dates who already had a high degree of specific skill. This trend became
even more pronounced when in early 1968 the Program was severely cut
back because of BALPA and related stringencies. In general, Trainees
were by now recruited not so much for their long-range potential as to
fill specific current requirements. For FY 1970 the Directorate of Sup-
port wants three investigators, five technicians, three lawyers, eight
business or accounting majors, and nine Support generalists. The Direc-
torate of Intelligence wants mostly MAs in_ ten specified fields or bach-
elors' degrees in certain sciences, engineering, or mathematics.
Approved For Release 2003/0CFIDP84-00780R003100130003-3
25
 Approved For Release 20038 -RDP84-00780R003100130003-3
The Clandestine Service has many fewer possible openings than before,
but has fairly recently argued that the tighter personnel situation requires
an upgrading of standards, and therefore stipulates that henceforth Trainees
should hold advanced degrees (mostly MAs in various area studies) and pre-
sent either an intermediate knowledge of sono.e language or a high aptitude
for languages. All these developments have made it expedient to move all
the way back to the initial interview the decision as to which Directorate
a Trainee would join, and to reach. that decision before his own acquaint-
ance with the Agency and his performance in training can help influence
the assignment. In so doing we have abandoned what used to be one of the
most successful features of the Program. Instead, we now give training
of which a good deal is entirely inappropriate (for example, the Ops Famil-
iarization Course for Trainees already slated for the DDI), and increase
the dissatisfaction of the Trainees with the rigidity of both training sched-
ules and placement.
8. In a meeting on 6 November 1968 the Director emphasized his
own continuing interest in the Program. He underlined the necessity of
selecting only the best (now made easier by the new restriction on num-
bers), but iristea.d of concentrating on advanced degrees, he expressed a
criterion more nearly like that of earlier years. To quote from Mr. Wat-
tles's memorandum of the same day to his recruiters, Mr. Helms has
in effect directed that applicants selected for the Program have demon-
strated by experience, interest, academic focus, or by any other means
you can think of a true,__ real interest in other countries and the inter-
national affairs of the United States. " This seems to come closer to the
old concern for personal attributes than to the new emphasis on graduate
degrees and special skills.
9. If we are to return to choosing young people primarily for
promise, character, personality, and above all motivation for Intelli-
gence as a career and a profession, then we must be ready later on to
provide them with the special skills the Agency will eventually require
of them. An interesting evidence that this is possible is to be seen in
OER's practice of sending junior officers to the Foreign Service Insti-
tute's intensive course in economics. But if skills are to be the most
important criteria, then the whole Program ought to be drastically re-
vised, or even abolished: Recruitment, training, and placement can-
not be effectively managed centrally by a Program designed for a quite
different purpose. In particular, the effort to manage these functions
centrally for largsu groups requires more precise forecasting of vacan-
cies than can be handled by a Program which requires up to two years'
Approved For Release 20031041. l 184-00780R003100130003-3
 Approved For Release 2003/04/2 _p~@@ggy~!!{{ DP84-0078OR003100130003-3
lead-tirr e, and the whole process is more vulnerable to every twist and
turn in budgetary and personnel considerations than it would be If it wore
divided among the Directorates. Meanwhilc, if we keep on trying to fCind
both high motivation for an Intelligence career and the Impressive gradu-
ate degrees, we sh,41 keep on finding that they do not often exist in the
sa #e person to a degree that will satisfy the Agency. Advanced degrees
are highly salable commodities in a highly competitive market, and it is
no wonder that recent graduates tend to look on CIA as just one more job
opportunity like many others.
10, AMiy own tentative recommendation is to return to the old con-
cept and leave the recruiting of already trained s pecialists to the Direc-
torates. It would be a great loss if the Agency did not try to keep on find
irzg young people of high general promise, introduce then-i to the work of
the Agency as a whale:, and gradually Identify through training the interests
and aptitudes,; which would. fit them especially for one line of wort.;, or an-
other. Without: such a 1'x oga axe we would love a val.ua: l.e; means of empha-
sizing the Agency's essential unity of function, and would instead encourage
a segregation-into tribes speakkin different; t. ngues, `.Chat danger is al?-
reeady present among zi and we need every means we can devise to ward
it off. I believe we, could manage a, small P ?ogram to this end without
creating the old bugaboo of an elite corps; at the sa-rnc time xp. ,nagc rs
thx-aughout the Agency could re cru.it and dnvelor the large of
Junior professionals they need in addition. to those the Programn could?
supply,
a and .! dvancerrme;nt
11. Career Trainees as a group present two special prob1t z-ns,
especially when we require those highly salable graduate degrees:
a. The Agency's starting salaries and promotion policies
for '1,'rc3.ln e a'jre not even competitive with those else\vhere in
the Governmen much less with those in'business, The Manage:-
ment Intern Pro ram of the Civil. Service Commission starts
young; officers at GS-09 and promotes them to GS.l1 after one
year, to GS- 1a year later, and to GS:-13 eighteen months after
that, The FBI starts its agents at GS-1.0. Foreign Service
Of icer s accr-,F. lie it pay and slow adlvaincera";.runt at first because
of the high rewards in prospect; the State .Dcpar- ment has 'many
more than CiA. has GS-18s# ICs not to 1 jr:J''iti )xl the hu.nd_i ed-
odd anibassadC rsship s, By contrast, the CIA prz:ctlce of start-
lug many Trainees at G5-07 or GS-08, and atlvaz cing them one
grade at -a time, za akes recruitment of the best talents steadily
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I
more difficult; e': -en the lesser talents can finr' higher pay and
quicker advancement elsewhere, as many exit interviews attest.
This fact reinforces the point about criteria for selection: We
must find the bright young man early, before-he has that graduate
degree, and bring him up the way he should go. The education
we complete for him after that can deepen his commitment to the
intelligence profession.
b. Promotion policy with respect to Trainees has not been
uniform throughout the Agency, and of course the Trainees know
this. Any change in promotion policy once the Trainees are on
board is resentfully regarded as welshing on promises made dur-
ing recruitment, This subject has received sufficient attention
recently not to require extended discussion here.
12. We should consider adopting the practice of the Civil Service
Commission for its management interns. If the hump and the scarcity
of higher grades make this impossible, then we should consider skipping
GS-08 and GS- 10 as many other parts of Government do for their profes-
sionals. Whatever else we do, we ought to be able to state a consistent
policy, Agency-wide, affecting the promotions of all Trainees (and. prob-
ably other professionals as well) up through, say, GS- 11, and undertake
not-to change it for those recruited under that policy until they have reach-
ed that grade. In. order to avoid misinterpretation. or misremembering of
oral statements made during recruitment or at entrance on duty, it would
be helpful to present the candidates with a written statement.
The Training Phase
13. Gradual changes elsewhere in the Program have brought serious
and costly contradictions into the training phase. Since 1958 the "Integrated
Training Program" has included extensive early segments intended to help
the Trainee and the Agency explore each other until the most suitable place-
ment is recognized on both sides. But nowadays the elaborate training ex-
ercises in elementary tradecraft or writing OCI bulletins serve no such
useful purpose for people whose destination is already decided. The effort
ih-these courses to measure aptitudes is becoming an irritating waste of
time. It would be far 'getter to concentrate on familiarizing the Trainees
with the work of the .whole Agency- -not the details of technique but what
each component does and why, and how they all fit together. If we return
to the generalist prin.cJ.ple we can still use these courses to measure apti-
tudes, but if we deal. largely with specialists they will at least have a more
practical idea of how their specialty fits into the whale complex framework.
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14. We are thinking of revising the whole training program for
young prof.ssioan.als (riot Trainees only) to sharpen the focus successively
01z, the three separate aspects of the training, , function at this early stage:
first, a b oacl orientation to Intelligence as a career in public r ervice,
for all uewcoxner:i; then: a true familiarization with the work of the Agency:
for all Trainees and perhaps others, omitting elaborate examination of
techniques; and finally, for the'Trainces of each Directorate as appropri-
ate, intense concentration on the specific skills the Directorate knows
they will need. The present Prograi :. is more or less like that already,
but ccnu`ains a naxnber of important anon ,hies that will take considerable
time to correct. (For example, the 0ps r`ami.liarization Course spends
many hours on the writing of cables and dispatches in the Clandestine,
S, rvice; this Is pointless for people going to the DIDI and DDS, and belongs
in the later course for Clandestine Service personnel only.) Along -\Y.ith all
this we need to re-examine possibilities for ova-the-job training for up to
several months at x c: