The Foreign Service Journal, April 2012

A ttention, U.S. Agency for In- ternational Development FSOs preparing for language-desig- nated positions: You may want to get out your checkbooks. An assignment to a language-designated post can cost you and your family thousands of dol- lars more than it would your State counterparts. As with many other American fam- ilies, it is common for Foreign Service families to have two working adult professionals, whether to maintain long-term financial stability, maintain a healthy relationship dynamic, or shed any feeling of dependency. Whatever the reason, many Eligible Family Members simply enjoy the work they do and, understandably, don’t want to leave it behind when their spouse is posted to a faraway city with a name that their colleagues struggle to pronounce. Still, it is no secret that EFM jobs at many posts either aren’t available or aren’t the right fit professionally. So many spouses and partners look to an American company, an international organization or a nongovernmental or- ganization for opportunities. Too often, however, EFMs lack the language fluency needed to compete successfully for jobs on the local econ- omy. So how can they acquire such proficiency? One Service, Two Agencies, Two Policies If a State Department Foreign Service employee is slated for lan- guage training at the Foreign Service Institute, he or she can make a quick call to his or her career development officer to have the spouse or partner enrolled in the same course. Assum- ing space is available, several months later (after a lot of hard work) the offi- cer and EFM can debate the fine points of U.S. policy in one of the 70 languages FSI teaches. The same is not true for USAID FSOs. Their agency’s policy on lan- guage training for Eligible Family Members diverges sharply from State’s, creating a lack of parity for USAID Foreign Service families. According to the Foreign Affairs Manual (13 FAM 110), FSI is gener- ally funded by the Department of State to train direct-hire State employees and State EFMs at no cost to the bu- reau or post. In contrast, the other for- eign affairs agencies must pay tuition to train their employees or family members at FSI. Currently, USAID purchases no more than eight weeks of language training for each EFM. And those eight weeks usually come in the form of a FAST course. For instance, a State EFMdestined for Dakar may receive the full 30-week French Basic course at FSI. At the end of the course, the EFM can expect to speak and read at the “3” level. A “3” represents General Professional Proficiency, according to the five-point Interagency Language Roundtable scale FSI uses. In contrast, a USAID EFM going to the same post can only enroll in the eight-week FAST course. With 22 fewer weeks of training, he or she can only expect to develop language skills at the “1” (Elementary) or “1+” (Ele- mentary, plus) level. To be fair, some USAIDEFMs may already have strong language skills as a result of previous study or experience. The eight weeks at FSI will allow them to “top up” or refresh their ability be- fore getting to post. And others may be among the envied few who take to 14 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 2 Purchasing Parity: USAID’s EFM Language Training Policy B Y B RENDAN M. W HEELER S PEAKING O UT Giving USAID Eligible Family Members affordable access to language instruction would be expensive. But it can be done.