Rescuing Training: Joining Learning and Application in a Federal Agency Training Program

Abstract

Traditional management training has often been too expensive or too poorly designed to be a credible vehicle for improving managerial skills and agency performance. The Senior Managers Program of the U.S. Department of Education offers an alternative. The year-long program integrates training with on-the-job application of skills to provide both a more effective learning environment and immediate results to demonstrate the value of the training. Each training workshop is followed by a planned and monitored intervention in the participant's work unit, and teams of participants work on significant agency problems identified by high-level officials. In addition to this novel approach to linking training with organizational change, the program seeks to develop a managerial support network to promote continued growth and agency improvement after the formal training program ends.