nsf academy

1 1National Science Foundation Office of Information and Resource Management

Division of Administrative ServicesDivision of Human Resource ManagementDivision of Information SystemsNSF Academy

NSF ACADEMY

Pius J. Egbelu

Dean

NSF Academy

National Science Foundation Office of Information and Resource Management NSF Academy

Purpose

• Briefly review the NSF Academy’s role

• Future strategies

• Some current initiatives

• Questions & answers


Vision

• Be recognized as a leader nationally for excellence in keeping the staff engaged in continuous learning to enhance their work performance, enrich human capital, and meet the present and future needs of NSF.


Academy Mission• Serve as a catalyst in creating a

culture of continuous learning at NSF that develops a “world-class” workforce capable of meeting the present and future needs of the Foundation.

• Align learning programs with the mission and strategic goals of NSF


Mission

• Promote organizational excellence through the advancement of human capital by proactively identifying and implementing the programs necessary for the development of NSF staff at all levels;

• Obtain and maintain a

progressive leadership position, in the use of technology, blended learning, and eLearning.


Shift in Paradigm

• Our responsibility is to offer and promote learning opportunities that:

- enrich the staff professionally.

- Foster continuous learning culture.

- Cultivate a “world class” NSF staff

• Training is only a part of our responsibility.


Our Goals

• Provide the staff with learning opportunities that align their skills with NSF mission and goals.

• Provide opportunities to enrich the personal and professional development of the staff.

• Be responsive to changes in work requirements driven by advances in science and technology to keep the staff at the cutting-edge of their profession.

• Provide a mixture of learning media that would include courses, workshops, lectures, symposia, and promote self learning initiatives.


Achieving organizationalexcellence and humancapital development

CourseAccessibility

Human CapitalEnrichment

Proactiveand Agile

Partnerships

Engagement

Guiding principles in meeting goals


Course Accessibility

• Identify and fight barriers to continuous learning – lack time and interest.

• Provide flexibility in course offerings

- courses for different employee categories

- e-learning (online course management and offerings)

- m-learning (use of mobile technologies that can offer course offering flexibility – Ipod, MP3 player, etc)

- Scheduling flexibility

Our goal is to offer courses in media that allow the staffto take classes at anytime of the day and at any setting Of their choice.


Give the staff access to learning resources in portable and convenient formats.

• MP3 downloads of important NSF staff presentations.

• Audiobook downloads to listen to on desktops or MP3 players during commute.

• MP3 players preloaded with audiobooks and professional development courses to listen to at NSF onsite gym.

• Enable staff to attend Academy training courses without having to leave their desks.

Concept of m-learning examples


Offer courses that are relevant and have the potential to advance employee career interests while satisfying the NSF mission and goals.

• Courses taken by the staff should be goal oriented to address required core competencies and general knowledge.

•There is no “one course” that can meet the needs of all.

• Recognize overarching needs foundation wide and targeted needs, e.g., Directorate/Division needs.

• Address courses that meet both the present and the future NSF needs.

Course Enrichment


Course enrichment• Work toward developing mechanisms to help Directorates and Divisions identify the learning needs of their staff.

• Pursue a model of shared responsibility in course development between the Academy and the Directorates/Divisions.

Academy overarching courses.

Directorates/Divisions & Academy targeted courses.

• Order and organization are required in course development and offerings.

• Academy to serve as a central repository and coordinator for all Foundation courses.


Proactive & AgileBe anticipatory of future human capital needs and take initiative to offer courses in a timely manner to meet the demand.

• Advances in science and technology are changing work demands.

• Anticipate future staff needs and be agile in responding to it.

• Directorates and Divisions to play key role in this.

• Establish regular data collection process on new course demands from directorates for future work requirements and human capital development needs.


PartnershipsSeek partnerships with organizations within and outside NSF. Greater role for those in leadership or supervisory positions. Example: Greater participation and interest in assessing employee career/professional development needs .

• Cornerstone to the Academy’s mission and goals in creating a continuous learning culture.Internal Partnerships: All administrative units of NSF

Directorates Divisions Offices

External Partnerships: Private sector Universities Peer institutions overseas Other government agencies


Internal Partnerships• Greater exchange of ideas and information sharing.

• Greater involvement in assessing staff professional development needs.

- Collaboration between the staff and supervisors- Greater involvement of supervisors and the staff in

career planning and learning to enhance performance.- Set annual learning/professional development goals- Development of employee career planning roadmap- Get employees interests up in learning.- Give feedback to the Academy on needs for new

courses.- Provide/appoint mentors to employees.

•Engage supervisors as their unit champions for continuous learning.


Support to Directorates

•To know where next to go, you have to know where you are or have been.

•To counsel effectively, supervisors have to know the employee history of learning participation.

•Academy will embark on developing employee learning participation profile database.

•Academy will generate periodic employee learning participation statistics by Directorates and Divisions.


External Partnerships•The Academy does not have the manpower or the funding to develop all courses that may be required.

•Partnership with other organizations focused on employee learning will be pursued.

•Benefits from such partnerships are leveraging on resources and best practices, knowledge transfer, and information sharing.

•We consider external partnerships very important.


Keep all levels of the Foundation engaged. Academy’s success in its mission depends on the attitude and support of supervisors toward continuous learning and human capital development.

• Academy’s long-term goal: Institutionalize “continuous learning” as part of employee’s job responsibilities.

• Supervisors to see career counseling/mentoring as part of supervisory responsibilities.

• Review employee learning history periodically or on an annual basis.

Engagement: Division & Directorate levels


Engagement: Division & Directorate levels

• Dissociate annual learning reviews from annual performance reviews to avoid misinterpretation of intent.

• Use the outcome of the review to determine the individual staff learning needs.

• Set learning goals for the following year in the plan.


CREATING INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (IDP)

Course historyEmployee profile

Current job requirements

Employee career plan

Changes in job requirements

Other work related factors

Employee learning plan

Annual individual Dev.

plan

Career/Learning goals

Employee Competency

Goal: See that IDPs are taken more seriously.


Our model for staff participation

NSF Academy

Directorate Admin OfficeDirectorate

Division Division DivisionDivision Division Division Division

Divisional Staff Divisional StaffDivisional Staff

Academy Working Group (AWG) to serve as internal advisory committee, liaisons, unit champions and advocates.


Course Development Approach

New Federal reqmts Targeted

concerns

Overarching concerns

Service offices concerns

Employees

Divisions

Directorates

Upper management

Academy team

Internally developed

courses

Externally developed

courses

Suite of courses

Course offerings

NSF w

ide

Direct/Div


Some New Initiatives

• Piloting mentoring program in CISE Directorate- Propagate Foundation-wide later.

• Pursuing internal & external partnerships.- To leverage on resources and strengths- Expand learning opportunities- Engage outside experts on Academy programs.

• Flexible learning opportunities-use mobile audio/visual learning (m-learning) devices to make courses more accessible.

- Laptops, MP3 players


Some New Initiatives

• New employees orientation (NEO)- In partnership with HRM & Directorates

• Career counseling

• Knowledge retention and management- Groove community of practice- Use of experienced NSF subject experts.

• Updating program managers seminar.


Conclusion

• Continuous learning is good for the staff and the Foundation.

• In today’s business climate, learning should not taken as an option but an integral element of any job.

• The Academy is setup to become the agent to bring about this paradigm shift in learning culture at NSF.

• Institutionalizing learning as a culture will ensure that NSF remains a world class organization it is known to be.

nsf academy

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