Wing Operations to hold town halls for simulator positions

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VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  All candidates who applied for the simulator instruction positions at Vance AFB are invited to attend an hour-long meeting April 7 at the auditorium on base. The first meeting will be at 11:30 a.m. and the second at 4 p.m.

The meetings will address selection criteria and are open to the public. For those without base access, contact 2nd Lt. Paul Whittaker, 580-213-7374, by 4 p.m., April 2.

The secretary of defense announced last year that the Defense Department would scale back the role of contractors in support services. As a result, the Air Force, along with other DOD activities, is reviewing existing contracts for in-sourcing opportunities - the use of DOD civilian employees to perform functions that are currently performed by contractors.

The Air Education and Training Command is reviewing all contracted services as potential candidates for future in-sourcing, including but not limited to, flight simulator training at Vance AFB. The Air Force is retaining all rights to exercise its contract options, but continues to seek the most efficient and effective use of resources consistent with congressionally mandated incentives and statutory requirements.

"Now that we have a pool of applicants from USA Jobs, we want to explain the rating criteria, to include interviews that will be used for hiring," said Lt. Col. Matt Johnston, one of the 71st Flying Training Wing's points of contact for potential conversion of simulator instruction from a contracted function to a government run function. "For those applicants who cannot attend one of the meetings, the criteria will be posted on the base's public Web site, www.vance.af.mil, along with questions and answers which come up during the meetings," he said.

Flight training simulator instructor jobs at Vance AFB under the DOD general schedule pay system were posted on the USA Jobs Web site, www.usajobs.gov, in January this year. The pool of candidates who applied through USA Jobs is currently being processed through the Vance Civilian Personnel Office for possible employment.

"Our goal is transparency wherever possible," said Col. Chris Nowland, the 71st FTW commander. "In-sourcing is a multi-year initiative, but should the simulator instruction function here be in-sourced Oct. 1 this year, we need to have a pool of qualified employees ready to continue our important mission of training the world's best skilled aviators."