The Office of Management and Budget’s deputy director for management recently talked about how the Trump administration is working to upgrade the skills of the federal workforce as part of the government’s IT modernization efforts, FedScoop reported Monday.
Margaret Weichert said during the 2018 Imagine Nation ELC conference that, regarding IT modernization and the acquisition of tech talent, she and her office discovered that “we need the people here in government, particularly the people who have the desire to be here.â€
Weichert noted that “it’s always cheaper and more effective to train your own†and that she and her office are now looking at various talent development efforts, such as the Government Effectiveness Advanced Research Center initiative, to reskill government employees.
Weichert’s preference for providing retraining aligns with the results of a recent survey conducted by the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council.
On average, more than half of the survey’s respondents considered it critical for government employees to undergo training and development in order for their respective agencies to realize their IT modernization goals. The survey recommended that agency leaders and human resource departments work together to provide employees with the requisite preparation.
