By NARAPIROM / Shutterstock.com

Executives Association Wants to Fill in the Gaps in Federal Training and Development

Group hopes that efforts to boost professional development for agency leaders will eventually be adopted by agencies.

For years, stakeholder organizations and good government groups have decried the lack of sufficient training for managers and executives at federal agencies. Now an association for agency executives is taking matters into its own hands.

The Senior Executives Association is developing a number of training courses for members of the Senior Executive Service and prospective applicants to the federal government’s cadre of career leaders. The organization is developing a series of courses, in conjunction with GradSchoolUSA, to train executives on both general leadership concepts and specific issues like cybersecurity and risk management, and it is developing a “holistic” framework to support senior executives throughout their career.

“We’re getting ready to launch Public Service Leadership as a profession, which will take a holistic look at how you develop a leadership profession in the federal government,” SEA President Bill Valdez said. “Think about it this way: The American Bar Association trains and promotes lawyers. The American Medical Association promotes doctors, and the Project Management Institute promotes project managers. But there’s nothing out there that promotes leadership in the federal government.”

Valdez said that the plan is still relatively early in development, and SEA is aiming to launch it in early 2019. But as early as late 2018, SEA and GradSchoolUSA could roll out their training courses, which would be available to executives and federal employees on the upper levels of the General Schedule for a fee. That program would offer training for leaders at several points in their career trajectory.

“We’ve identified courses on what we’re calling SES 101, 201 and 301,” Valdez said. “ SES 101 will be for emerging leaders, GS-11s to 14s, who are thinking about joining the SES but don’t know about it, so it’s about the reality of applying for SES and that sort of thing. 201 is for someone who knows they’re ready to become a leader, but how do you actually do that? How do you write [executive core qualifications], how do you interview, and those kinds of things.”

SES 301 would be designed for existing SES members and would provide professional development that is not adequately provided in federal agencies today, in the association's view.

“The attitude within the government right now is that if you become an SES member, you’re fully baked, and that’s just not the case,” Valdez said. “Study after study shows that you still have developmental needs, that circumstances change and so do policies and procedures. There are a host of emergent issues that people need to be trained on.”

Valdez hopes to distinguish SEA’s training programs from existing leadership programs at universities by  providing professional development that shows how to apply leadership concepts directly to participants’ day-to-day jobs.

“This is not a slam against those [existing] programs, but typically they’re taught by non-SES members,” he said. “So we’re bringing the voice of the SES, the realities of the SES, to these kinds of courses and situations, and thinking about what it really means to be a leader in the federal government . . . We’re not all teachers and instructors, but we have very good people within SEA who know how to articulate things in a classroom setting or through mentoring experiences, so we’re trying to bring that voice to these kinds of discussions.”

Valdez said he hopes that SEA’s efforts to fill a training void, along with a study of existing federal leadership training programs, will result in an opportunity to bolster professional development at federal agencies. The association, along with the Partnership for Public Service and the Volcker Alliance, last month released an SES Joint Policy Agenda outlining priorities in any civil service reform effort, which included a significant expansion in training, professional development and performance management for senior executives.

“When I’ve talked with [the Office of Management and Budget] and the Hill, OMB says, ‘It’s a zero sum game, and there’s only so much money to go around, so if you want to find money for leadership and professional development programs, you need to take it away from somewhere else,’” Valdez said. “And then Congress says, ‘Well, we’re willing to fund extra programs, but you have to prove to us that they work. We’re skeptical that the government will be able to develop excellent programs.’ . . . So we want to show why these programs work, and the results that they’ve been able to accumulate.”

Kristine Simmons, vice president of government affairs for the Partnership for Public Service, said she could not comment specifically on SEA’s efforts, but that any effort to supplement the patchwork of training programs currently offered by federal agencies would be a positive development.

“We’re pleased to see any effort to invest not only in the pipeline of talent in the SES and investing in the development of SES members so that they can continue to grow and contribute in exciting ways,” she said. “From my perspective, Congress needs to understand and appreciate the importance of employee training. Agencies are, by and large, under-resourced in this space, and it is not usually a priority for Congress when funding agencies to invest in professional development and training for agency staff.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.