USDA Ethics

Training Modules

Welcome to the USDA Ethics training page! All Federal employees, who file financial disclosure reports (public or confidential), are required to take one (1) hour of ethics training annually, but we understand that it is not always convenient to attend classroom training. For this reason, we have created the following Computer Based Training (CBT) modules so that you may satisfy your annual ethics training requirements at your leisure (unless otherwise indicated, we have determined that 3 modules meet the 1-hour requirement). As regulation also requires a review of the documents below, we suggest you familiarize yourself with them:

  • The Principles
  • The Standards
  • Agency Supplements; and
  • The Federal conflict of interest statutes.

2006 UPDATE:

We request USDA employees take computer based training during normal business hours. Very likely your agency ethics advisor, who is a qualified ethics instructor, will be available for questions during that time. If not, a qualified instructor will be standing by to answer any ethics questions you have at (202) 720-2251. Additionally, you can always ask questions by e-mail at DAEO.ethics@usda.gov.

All ethics training modules for USDA employees are available both here below and on AgLearn. All USDA employees who are able to take training at AgLearn should take training there, so that the courses will be part of their official USDA records. To take ethics training on AgLearn, click here. Alternatively, to accomplish training on our site, please continue.

IMPORTANT: While we wholeheartedly invite all interested individuals to take our training, automatic self-certification of completed training on this site is currently only available to USDA employees and affiliates. Non-USDA employees will be given the option to email a self-certification notice to their Ethics Advisor (if you don’t see your Agency on the drop down menu, we recommend that you simply forward the date/time/name of the module(s) you complete to your Ethics Advisor directly).

USDA employees, on the other hand, will be directed to a secure site on the NFC Web Server that will record that they have completed an Ethics training module. Information about completed training will be available both to the employee and to their Ethics Advisor(s). The information will not be available to other visitors to the website. Please remember to choose the box that indicates that you are a USDA employee - even if you are an affiliate or Special Government Employee (SGE) and to enter your social security number (SSN) at the prompt to “certify.” Note also that not everyone will receive email certifications of their training (some USDA web servers are blocking these messages from being received).

To inquire as a USDA employee about training modules you’ve completed at this site, or as an Advisor checking on filers’ completed training, go to: Ethics Training Inquiry.

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