AFSA NEWS 2024 AFSA Professional Development Program Survey In July 2024, AFSA asked its members to respond to a Professional Development Program (PDP) survey. More than 800 generalist and specialist members shared their understanding of and experience with PDP, the sole checklist of requirements to compete for the Senior Foreign Service once the Career Development Program (CDP) sunsets at the end of 2025. Note: While generalists all complete the same PDP requirements, specialists have requirements tailored to their specialties. Hardship and leadership training requirements are shared by both groups. Principal Findings Survey stats. The survey had 856 respondents, all currently at the FS-2 and FS-1 levels. Respondents If your answer was no to completing the hardship requirements, what is the reason(s) you have not yet completed them? (Check all that apply.) comprised 699 generalists and 157 specialists, with 376 total women respondents, 451 men, 2 nonbinary, and 27 who chose not to say. White respondents numbered 603, Black American 54, Asian American 54, Hispanic American 42, mixed race 38, and Hawaii or Pacific Islander 1. Another 64 respondents marked “other” or chose not to specify. PDP hardship requirements. Approximately 36 percent of respondents reported they had not yet completed the PDP hardship requirements. When asked why, the most common reason given was that serving in hardship posts would entail family separation. Gender gap in hardship service and bidding. The survey highlighted a significant gender gap among generalists, with 41 percent of women generalists not fulfilling the hardship service requirement, compared to just 32 percent of men generalists. The survey also highlighted a gender gap in generalist bidding on hardship posts, with a significant difference between bidders on 25 percent and 20 percent posts. Forty-three percent of generalist respondents said that since being promoted to FS-2, they had not bid on 25 percent hardship positions. In examining further, we found that 50 percent of women (versus 36 percent of men) have not bid on 25 percent hardship posts since promotion; however, slightly more women than men (46 percent versus 44 percent) have bid on 20 percent hardship posts since promotion. Note: When we examined the percentage of generalist respondents who did not complete the PDP hardship requirements by various ethnic and racial groups, we found that these groups were either completing the requirements at the same rate or better than their white counterparts. Generalist Special Incentive Post (SIP) gender gap. Forty-six percent of men generalist respondents had served in SIP posts versus just 28 percent of women generalists. FS-2 vs. FS-1 hardship completion. As expected, there was a gap between FS-2 and FS-1 respondents, with nearly twice as many FS-2s refraining from bidding on 25 percent and 20 percent posts as FS-1s. 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Number of respondents I bid on hardship posts one or more times but was never chosen. I bid on an unaccompanied post one or more times but did not get the position(s). I intended to bid on hardship posts but there was no such position at my grade. All my hardship posts were before tenure. A medical condition (dependent or self) prevented me from serving in a hardship post/unaccompanied post. Fulfilling this requirement would require separation from my children or spouse, which I am not willing to do. I could not find a qualifying assignment where my spouse would be able to work. I could not find a qualifying assignment where my kids’ educational needs are met. I could not find a qualifying assignment where my elder care needs would be met. Other. THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2024 57 Continued on next page
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