Take a break and listen to the All Things Small Business podcast series. For episode 23, we visit with Mr. Ty Schieber, Managing Director at the University of Virginia (UVA), Darden School of Business, Executive Education and Lifelong Learning. He has served in this position for four years. Prior to that, he served in the defense and aerospace arena since 1998. He also is a former Marine Corps acquisition officer. He is the first podcast guest from an academic institution and brings an interesting perspective of how academic institutions are supporting defense acquisition.

This podcast is extremely informative and provides practical knowledge about the concept of lifelong learning as supported and practiced at UVA as both degree and certification programs are offered. According to Mr. Schieber, UVA has always focused on educating responsible student leaders since its founding in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson. He talked about the robust executive education programs provided by open enrollment, digital, and custom programs all aimed at providing learning at the point of need and how the recent addition of $82M in grant and other funding will accelerate these efforts. He also talked about the recent establishment of UVA Northern Virginia (NOVA) in order to provide more educational opportunities to the greater Washington DC area. Mr. Schieber also talked about the UVA communities of practice that afford networking and stakeholder engagement.

Mr. Schieber discussed how all these education and training programs directly relate to small business. He emphasized that all these programs and offerings are all designed to provide the education and training needed to help individuals solve complex policy issues and national security issues. One particular program he highlighted is the U.S. Navy Insights to Industry Management Course in which Navy and Marine Corps acquisition professionals learn about and discuss issues impacting the defense industrial base from the industry perspective of both small and large businesses. This two-week program has been in place for over 50 years and is generally offered twice a year. I had the pleasure of graduating from the course in August 2018.

You can listen to episode 23 at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/all-things-small-business-ty-schieber-uva-on-small/id1523710805?i=1000567896440 or by subscribing to the All Things Small Business podcast series via the Apple store.

You can learn more about the UVA Darden School of Business at https://www.darden.virginia.edu/.

The All Things Small Business podcast series can also be found on the DAU Industry Support page at https://www.dau.edu/industry-support/p/doing-business-with-the-department-of-defense. Just scroll down to the podcast section, click on the red “Listen Now” button, and select the podcast of your choice.

Feel free to reach out to [email protected] or [email protected] if you want to participate as a future guest.