OPM Director Kay Coles James revealed this in a written response to a new Government Accountability Office report critical of the way agencies train their IT workers. According to GAO, agencies make limited use of best practices for training information technology employees and they cite funding and time constraints as major obstacles. Employee training is vital because technology changes so rapidly and because it is important to refresh the skills and expertise of employees frequently as federal employees retire in large numbers in the coming years, GAO said in its report, “Information Technology: Training Can Be Enhanced by Greater Use of Leading Practices.” The report was released July 26.
GAO identified 22 leading IT training practices in the private sector, all tied to five key processes: aligning training with strategic goals, identifying and assessing training needs, allocating resources, designing and delivering training, and evaluating and demonstrating the value of training. GAO surveyed 26 major agencies and found that agencies used just five of the 22 best practices to at least a great extent: addressing future skill needs and new technologies, considering benefits and costs of training, allocating resources for management training, providing different options for delivering training, and considering outsourcing training.
GAO said OPM has failed to issue governmentwide policies for training IT workers or evaluate agencies on their training programs, as required under the 2002 E-Government Act.
In her response to the report, OPM’s James said her agency is evaluating agencies’ progress in implementing training requirements, contrary to what GAO said.
OPM plans to issue draft guidance on governmentwide IT training performance standards in September and to finalize that guidance in October, she said.
James added it was unfair to criticize agencies for not adopting all of the 22 training standards that GAO listed in its report as leading practices.
“Not all of the 22 standards should be considered mandatory, such as enlisting executive-level champions, providing just-in-time training, combining different teaching methods, and building courses using reusable modules. Those are useful strategies and there are alternative approaches to them, but they should not be considered mandatory standards,” James said.
Autor: TIM KAUFFMAN
Quelle: Federal Times, 30.07.2004
