US
Department of State to Deliver e-learning to US Embassies
e-Learning Advances State Department’s IT System Upgrades
SmartForce today announced a multi-million dollar
agreement to provide a Learning solution, covering
information technology topics, to the Foreign Service
Institute (FSI), the training division of the U.S.
Department of State.
The Foreign Service Institute trains personnel in
U.S. foreign affairs including diplomats, information
management specialists, officers, security and medical
practitioners, and support professionals for the demands
of working and living abroad.
The
SmartForce solution was developed and implemented
through FSI’s School of Applied Information Technology
(SAIT). The SmartForce solution, offered in 10 languages,
will be available to all 30,000 State Department personnel
in over 250 countries. The
program’s goal is to decrease employees’ time to competency
on technology-related topics and to accelerate the
agency’s IT infrastructure upgrades.
Under
mandate by Secretary of State Colin Powell, the U.S.
Department of State has made it a top priority to
upgrade its existing IT infrastructure and to deploy
a system worldwide that provides Internet and e-mail
access for all employees. The
SmartForce Learning solution will further this initiative
by deepening the technical expertise of the organisation
and by increasing the number of industry-recognised
certifications achieved by workers.
The
solution will include courses on e-mail, Internet,
and IT competency so employees become more confident
and comfortable using technology to communicate and
share information between offices and embassies, in
order to increase the effectiveness of the entire
organisation.
“Providing easily accessible training, anytime and
anywhere, increases the effectiveness of our entire
organisation,” said Janette Corsbie, program director
for the School of Applied Information Technology’s
Distance Learning Program, U.S. Department of State.
“Given the current state of U.S. foreign affairs,
it is essential to our national security that all
personnel are competent in advanced technologies.
SmartForce e-Learning ensures consistency of knowledge
across the board, which in turn, enables State Department
employees to work more efficiently and use technology
to gather and share the most information possible.”
The
SmartForce solution features the industry’s largest
body of e-Learning content, technologies for the delivery
and management of learning, collaboration tools with
real-time mentoring and a learning community of more
than two million users.
The
success of the initial roll out to the IT department
led the SAIT to expand the single-source solution
to 30,000 State Department personnel and to support
the department’s workforce incentive program. Recognised
by the government’s Chief Information Officer (CIO)
website as a best practice, this incentive program
rewards employees who achieve industry certifications
with commensurate increases in base pay.
Additionally,
SAIT is working to make training on security issues
available to specialists that work overseas. To this
end, the organisation plans to expand its e-Learning
content covering security topics and to adapt the
solution as its needs and processes dictate.
“The
State Department has recognised a critical need in
its organisation to raise its employees’ knowledge
and understanding of information technology and we
are proud to be a part of their efforts,” said Greg
Priest, chairman and CEO of SmartForce. “We are confident
that our user-friendly courses will help the State
Department achieve improved communication throughout
its organisation in an efficient and effective manner
and we look forward to continuing the strong relationship
that has developed thus far.”
July
30th, 2002
 
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