The Foreign Service Journal, May 2006

father clause” built into the new CDP, which is admirable, comput- er training is so important that even those who can opt not to fulfill this mandate would still be better off if they did. So how do we make that happen? Let’s Level the Playing Field In contrast to specialists, gener- alists of all cones are routinely sent to Washington at the government’s expense for political tradecraft, economic courses, etc., to further their careers. Often there is an arrangement for the post to pay for the ticket and the bureau to pay the per diem; in some cases, the bureau pays for it all. Officers who need train- ing will often get the relevant regional or functional bureau to pay for it, so the post expenditure for travel is manageable. For example, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor will fund labor officer training. If the post needs to pay for anything at all, it might only be the airfare; often the training is fully funded by the functional bureau. Unfortunately, OMSs don’t have the option of their computer training being funded in a sim- ilar manner. Why not? What is perceived as somewhat unfair to those of us having some years in the Service is the difficulty in get- ting training when and where we need it. According to various people I spoke with at the OMS conference last fall and subsequently, there are only two places where the certification tests can be taken: the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Va., and the School of Applied Information Technology in Warrenton, Va. It would be helpful if more regional training and testing were offered. The two advantages are that it would save money, and the newly trained would be able to return immediately to their offices to implement their new skills. As I mentioned previously, this is crucial to ensure the investment in training is not wasted, because reten- tion goes down exponentially the longer the gap is between training and application of that training in the work place. Ideally, certification exams could be taken at local Microsoft-certified training centers. An exam is an exam, and even if an OMS takes a certification course via Fastrac, why shouldn’t he or she be permitted to pay for a certifica- tion exam locally and then have that certification accepted — and be reimbursed for the fee? State could also work out a liaison with a local testing center to accept the voucher from Fastrac for the exam. Currently, if an employee pays his or her own examination fee, they are not reimbursed, yet a second example of an employee meeting a mandate that is not funded. If it’s not funded, it’s not fair. Some posts are being very pro- active in helping OMSs achieve their career goals. Pretoria, for example, pays for OMSs to go to a certi- fied training center and also pays for their exams. Other posts would benefit greatly by following this excellent example of investment in human resources and proactive management. In fact, making this a pol- icy for all posts where possible would be the best solu- tion overall. In closing, information management training is inte- gral to the evolving OMS skill code, but additional fund- ing to adopt best practices with regard to logistical man- agement is necessary to implement it. For example, wouldn’t it make more sense to offer regionally based computer courses and allow OMSs to take certification exams locally? Or, if testing at post is not possible, could it at least be done at a new and improved State Department-run Florida regional facility? This would, in my view, provide a good compromise for those of us who need to get the Microsoft Office Suite of profes- sional certifications as quickly as possible. My intention in writing this article has been to stimu- late more people to discuss viable options that would help Office Management Specialists in a manner that benefits not only them, but the department as well. I am, overall, very pleased with the new Career Development Program for the OMS specialty. But with regard to training issues, we still have some ground to cover to minimize bureaucratic roadblocks. Office Management Specialists should be able to get the train- ing we need to be the best we can be in our jobs, and do what we all want to do: excel in our careers. n F O C U S M A Y 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 43 It would be helpful if more regional training were offered. Ideally, certification exams could be taken at local Microsoft-certified training centers.