The Secretary of the Navy Industry Tours Program will debut this fall for Navy and Marine Corps officers.
While operational tempo remains high, the economy continues to grow and private sector jobs are multiplying. As a result, the Navy is having a hard time keeping its junior and mid-level officers in the ranks.
This new initiative gives the services' best and brightest an opportunity to experience corporate America without separating.
"Having mastered your warfare specialty, there may come a time you wish to broaden your professional experience," he said. "When these officers return to the fleet, they'll bring industry's best practices with them."
The program is set up much like the Navy's successful Career Intermission Program, which lets sailors take off three years to raise families, attend college or pursue other projects and interests. Mabus hopes the additional flexibility and broader experience that CIP and the industry internships offer will entice more officers to stay in the Navy and Marine Corpsprofessional or personal projects.
The industry tours will specifically send officers to Fortune 500 companies. The tour lengths are still being worked out, a senior Navy official told Navy Times, but two years is the lengthnumber being batted around.
"This is for our very best. This is for the people that we want to lock down in a career," he said. "We want to get them some experience out in industry so they can learn and grow personally and bring some of that skill set back to the Navy."
Like with CIP, the industry tour would require an extra service commitment — for example, two years on an officer's contract for every year spent in the civilian sector.
And, like CIP, leaving for two years would freeze participating officers' year-groups, so that the time away doesn't damage their competitiveness for promotionadvancement.
That eventually might not matter, however, as SECNAV is also asking Congress to do away with officer year-groups altogether.
The Navy is looking at 100 to 200 spots initially, based on interest, the official said.
The industry tours are one of a menu of options the Navy is putting together to allow sailors some time off. Similarly, the Army allows enlisted soldiers to spend up to three years at companies like Google, Lockheed Martin, the National Football League and USAA.
CIP is expanding, Mabus said, from 40 to 400 billets. Additionally, there will be more options for length of intermission, compensation and service obligation afterward.
And for those specifically looking to earn graduate degrees, SECNAV is adding 30 new billets for fully funded, in-residence master's degree programs this year.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.
