U.S. Navy photo by Doug Davant. Potential students crowd JD's Conference Center Ball Room to learn about the different academic disciplines from college representatives.

The open-house forum gave employees face-to-face time with university admission representatives and professors to discuss academic opportunities at all levels - associates, bachelors, masters, and PhD.

“The Academic Fair provided a unique forum to address academic related questions and concerns of our workforce in personal, and effective manner,“ said Debbie Bardine, NSWC Dahlgren Academic Programs Manager. “Members of our Workforce Development and Training Team talked personally to nearly every employee in attendance to provide guidance with respect to registration procedures, on-site academic course offerings and academic incentives.“

Attendees collaborated with representatives of educational institutions that included George Mason University, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University, Old Dominion University, University of Mary Washington, Naval Postgraduate School, and Germanna Community College.

What's more, members of the NSWC Dahlgren Workforce Development and Training Team answered questions related to internal processes, procedures and benefits associated with pursuing academic training.

Registration for Spring Semester 2010 is now on-going, according to Bardine.

“Employees were provided a copy of registration procedures and on-site course offerings at the fair,“ she said, adding that, “those who couldn't make it, please look for the information to come through your department training representatives or consult our academic training website.“

The NSWC Dahlgren academic training website address is:

https:⁄⁄wwwdd.nmci.navy.mil⁄program⁄Workforce_Development_Branch⁄Academic.html