It’s that time again… Federally Employed Women’s (FEW) National Training Program (NTP) 2015 is just SIX weeks away and training and development is even more crucial to Agencies and federal workers.   FEW’s NTP’s are designed to train and develop workers and provide opportunities for attendees to garner the support needed for excelling in their careers.   FEW’s NTP is exactly that — a training program.

Training programs primarily focus on providing tools and information needed to excel you in your career.  Attendees take what they’ve learned and apply it in their careers.   Conferences, on the other hand, focus on providing valuable information and garnering support.  FEW’s NTP is a training program with courses aligned directly to OPM’s core competencies and Executive Qualifications. Afterwards, we provide attendees with documentation they can use to apply for Conitinuing Education Units (CEU’s) for each course taken.  While there are discussions of whether FEW’s NTP is considered a training program or a conference, we have never considered the NTP a conference.   We are the only affinity group that offers the Special Emphasis Project Manager’s (SEPM) certification class presented by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) and our trainers are considered specialist in their fields and up-to-date on trends for their subject matter.

On May 1, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memorandum titled the “OPM’s Discontinuation of Issuing Memoranda regarding Whether Conferences Qualify as a Training Activity under 5 CFR 410.404.”  In this memorandum OPM encouraged “agencies to continue to consider professional training organizations and affinity groups as a source of training. ”  Attendance at FEW’s NTP would comply as an developmental assignment.  The NTP under section 4110 of title 5, United States Code meets all these guidelines.    It has been announced as educational training program with an organized exchange of information between presenters and the audience. Our training content is germane to improving individual and/or organizational performance and developmental benefits will be derived through the employee’s attendance.

FEW offers the NTP as an option for training at a reasonable price to provide opportunities.  Operating “In the Spirit of Excellence” is not always easy, but, FEW is on a “Journey to Excellence” at the 46th NTP.  I encourage you to join us, July 13 – 17, at the Hilton Riverside in New Orleans, LA.  FEW stands true to our mission of providing professional development training opportunities.