1. Kinda - Cadets for 2 years and they did cover most of the basic training.

2. Absolutely. But it shouldn't cover any particular flavour of database, including SQL.

I know that's taken as a Universal Standard these days, but I would rather they learn about 2 phase commit, what a log file is REALLY for, how to normalise a database (and when not to), what we mean by Data Security, and why no application developer should ever be allowed access to the raw database tables (ok - maybe that one is stretching!).

There are hundreds of websites out there that will tell you the duties and responsibilities of a DBA, and they all have a different view. But there are a core set which should be covered.

What I would hate to see is for it to get hijacked by vendor X with specifics about "we do this like this". That's not the point!