The Department of State has incorporated interrelated elements of an effective training program into its extensive training for personnel, but its strategic approach to workforce training has several key weaknesses, GAO has said.
State put about $255 million in fiscal 2010 toward training, primarily through the Foreign Service Institute which is the primary training provide for over 66,000 Foreign Service, civil service, and locally employed staff worldwide.
While it has compiled an annual training plan and implemented a range of training evaluation mechanisms and a learning management system that can be used to track training delivery, several gaps remain according to GAO-11-241.
It said for example that State lacks a systematic, comprehensive training needs assessment process incorporating all bureaus and overseas posts, and that the department’s performance measures for training generally do not fully address training goals, and are generally output- rather than outcome-oriented.
Among the report’s recommendations – which State generally agreed with – are for FSI and HR to develop and implement a plan for a systematic, comprehensive training needs assessment process, incorporating all bureaus and posts, as well as to develop a data collection and analysis plan for training.
