- National Language Service Corps
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The National Language Service Corps (NLSC) is a nonprofit civilian organization administererd by the U.S. federal government. The mission of the NLSC is to recruit a readily-available pool of individuals who have expertise in languages that are important to the security and welfare of the nation. The NLSC provides certification to qualified individuals as part of its enrollment process. Its members must be US citizens who are at least 18 years-old. NLSC members voluntarily join and renew their membership in an organization that both considers and adopts the best practices of volunteer organizations.
While the pilot program has addressed a smaller subset of languages, the fully implemented NLSC will include an array of languages, perhaps more than 150. Still, the specific priorities and needs of agencies within the USG will ultimately determine the number of NLSC members associated with each language.
The NLSC conducts assessments and certifies the language-skill proficiency level of its members. This responsibility includes conducting performance-based testing which leverages available resources for testing languages of interest, as the central component of the certification process. Similar efforts are being made to determine the availability of satisfactory tests in other priority languages.
NLSC support will be provided to all departments and agencies of the USG and – when authorized – to state and local governments. The requesting agency and the NLSC will utilize memorandum of agreements to establish the relationships, and the roles and responsibilities of the parties. At a minimum, the Mission Support Request (MSR) is used to identify the requesting agency’s language requirements and the operational details for the deployment of NLSC members in support of the requirements.
Duty assignments of NLSC members are based upon language skills and, potentially, occupational skill sets, with the opportunities for service varying from emergency relief to international crises to immediate national need – wherever language skills are necessary. Members of the Corps will be compensated for their services when activated.
The Corps does not offer full-time positions.
Background
The NLSC, formerly known as the Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps, is a major component of the Department of Defense (DoD) plan to address future surge requirements and the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI). The objective of the latter is to build national capacity in diverse languages.
The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 (Public Law 108-487), Section 613, authorized the Director of National Intelligence to conduct a three-year pilot project to assess the feasibility and advisability of establishing a Civilian Linguist Reserve Corps.
Public Law 109-364 (also known as the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act of 2007) transferred the Pilot administration to the Secretary of Defense through the National Security Education Program (NSEP), for a period of five years. The NLSC would identify and warehouse foreign language expertise that is critical to DoD that can be made available when needed from the rich and diverse US population of heritage speakers and other language-capable individuals who want to volunteer their skills to serve their nation.
The NLSC Office is located in Arlington, Virginia.
See also
External links
Categories:- United States national security policy
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