Enlistment Supply in the 1990's: A Study of the Navy College Fund and Other Enlistment Incentive Programs
Abstract
Since the early 1980s the U. S. Army has used the Army College Fund (ACF) to attract high-quality recruits and channel them into hard-to-fill skills. Studies using 1980s data found the ACF to be a highly cost-effective means of attracting youth into service. Seeking to emulate the success of the Army's program, the U. S. Navy implemented its own Navy College Fund (NCF) program in 1990. Initially, the Navy's program was limited to 2,000 openings per year. Faced with mounting recruiting difficulties, the Navy expanded the NCF program dramatically in FY94 to 10,000 openings per year. The Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness OUSD(P&R) authorized this expansion and requested that the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) support an evaluation study of the effectiveness of the new NCF program. This study was conducted for OUSD(P&R) by a research team at Clemson University at the request of DMDC. The objectives of this study were to provide answers to the following policy questions. 1. Did high-quality enlistments in the Navy increase as a result of expansion of the NCF? 2. Did expansion of the NCF lead to increased high-quality enlistments DoD wide, or were recruits merely diverted away from the other Services? 3. Did the NCF affect other recruiting outcomes crucial to the success of military recruiting such as attrition from the Delayed Entry Program (DEP)? 4. How cost-effective is the NCF compared with recruiters, advertising, and enlistment bonuses?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA390845
Entities
People
- Curtis J. Simon
- Deborah M. Payne
- John T. Warner
Organizations
- Defense Manpower Data Center