The Advanced Acquisition Program (AAP) is a 12-month, part-time, non-resident, distance learning graduate certificate program that can also earn graduate credit toward NPS master's degree programs. Designed for both the DoD acquisition workforce and other professionals working with system acquisition and program management processes, the Advanced Acquisition Program provides a flexible, on-site alternative for education and Defense Acquisition

Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Program Management Level III certification. The AAP provides Acquisition Professionals and those associated with the DoD acquisition process an education resource for achieving DAWIA Level III Certification in Program Management with no student travel. This program is funded by the student's parent command, and is designed to accommodate professionals who are unable to travel away from the office for weeks of education. Schedules are coordinated with sponsoring commands, avoiding conflicts with major projects and deadlines

The AAP is a three-phased graduate certificate program of seven courses delivered over four NPS academic quarters. While the three phases must be completed in sequence, there is no requirement to complete them in the normal one-year time frame (four academic quarters). AAP is a graduate-level program of in-depth acquisition and program management education, earning successful students 19.5 graduate credit hours towards a master's degree. It also provides DoD students with up to 195 hours of Continuous Learning under the USD (AT&L) Continuous Learning Program (CLP), 31.5 Continuing Education Units (CEU), 6.33 Business Credits toward the requirement for 24 for the GS-1102 series. The combined courses are equivalent to Defense Acquisition University's ACQ101, ACQ201, PMT250 and PMT352.

Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Program Management Level III certification. The AAP provides Acquisition Professionals and those associated with the DoD acquisition process an education resource for achieving DAWIA Level III Certification in Program Management with no student travel. This program is funded by the student's parent command, and is designed to accommodate professionals who are unable to travel away from the office for weeks of education. Schedules are coordinated with sponsoring commands, avoiding conflicts with major projects and deadlines.

The AAP is a three-phased graduate certificate program of seven courses delivered over four NPS academic quarters. While the three phases must be completed in sequence, there is no requirement to complete them in the normal one-year time frame (four academic quarters). AAP is a graduate-level program of in-depth acquisition and program management education, earning successful students 19.5 graduate credit hours towards a master's degree. It also provides DoD students with up to 195 hours of Continuous Learning under the USD (AT&L) Continuous Learning Program (CLP), 31.5 Continuing Education Units (CEU), 6.33 Business Credits toward the requirement for 24 for the GS-1102 series. The combined courses are equivalent to Defense Acquisition University's ACQ101, ACQ201, PMT250 and PMT352.

Program Brochure: 

Eligibility: The Advanced Acquisition Program must be sponsored in full by a federal organization. Courses are offered to both military and federal civilians. Undergraduate degree is preferred.

Entry Dates: Entry dates can be at the beginning of any quarter throughout an academic year (January, April, July, or October).

Technology: Organizations interested in sponsoring courses must have a standards-based H.320- compatible system with a dial-up network capability at 384Kbps (3 ISDN lines).

Cost: This program is funded by the student's parent command (any federal organization) , and is designed to accommodate professionals who are unable to travel away from the office for weeks of education. Schedules are coordinated with sponsoring commands, avoiding conflicts with major projects and deadlines. While the three phases of the program must be completed in sequence, there is no requirement to complete them in a one-year time frame.

Funding Document Guidance: 

The AAP is conducted on-site in three phases: Students attend a VTC class originating from NPS during their first quarter, followed by a series of five one-week classes taught on-site over the following two quarters, then a final capstone class taught via VTC from NPS in the fourth quarter. These three phases as depicted on the right. The small blocks represent one year of 52 weeks.

Phase I: Concentrates on the Acquisition and Program Management breadth, addressing teaming through the Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD), the project cycle through the DoD 5000 series phases and milestones, and integrated systems development through the Systems Engineering Process (SEP). Students who have completed ACQ101, 201, and PMT250 can skip this phase.

Phase II: Provides in-depth study of Test & Evaluation, Software Acquisition Management,Contracting & Business Financial Management, Manufacturing and Quality, and Acquisition Logistics.

Phase III: Concentrates on Program Leadership through examination of case studies from actual Defense systems, IPT exercises, and application & written analysis of program management concepts.

If you are your organization's representative and are interested in having your organization sponsor the AAP program, please contact; 

Program Manager: John T. Dillard