The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has been awarded the prestigious 2012 Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Workforce Development Award. The award publicly recognizes organizations that achieve excellence in career-long training and development for their employees.

Mr. John H. James, Jr., MDA Executive Director, accepted the Workforce Development Silver Award for Large Organizations from Mrs. Katrina McFarland, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Monday, Dec. 17 at the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes ceremony.

The MDA earned this honor by making workforce training and development a top priority. The Agency uses numerous workforce development activities to improve acquisition outcomes and fulfill MDA's mission of developing and deploying an integrated, layered Ballistic Missile Defense System to defend the United States, its deployed forces, allies and friends from ballistic missile attacks of all ranges in all phases of flight.

The MDA's knowledge-based initiatives focus on employee professional development to strengthen functional competencies in order to attract, engage and retain a qualified workforce. The agency's robust training program has offered more than 4,000 in-house courses since 2010. The MDA provides readily available technical training that is taught by external subject matter experts in areas such as federal acquisition law, budget execution and Ballistic Missile Defense systems engineering.