USING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES FOR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
EMPLOYEES
EO 13111 12 Jan 99
Advances in technology and increased skills needs are changing the
work-place at an ever increasing rate. These advances can make Federal
employees more productive and provide improved service to our customers,
the Amer-ican taxpayers. We need to ensure that we continue to train
Federal employ-ees to take full advantage of these technological advances
and to acquire the skills and learning needed to succeed in a changing
workplace. A coordi-nated Federal effort is needed to provide flexible
training opportunities to employees and to explore how Federal training
programs, initiatives, and policies can better support lifelong learning
through the use of learning technology.
To help us meet these goals, I am creating a task force on Federal
training technology, directing Federal agencies to take certain steps
to enhance employees' training opportunities through the use of training
technology, and an advisory committee on the use of training technology,
which also will explore options for financing the training and post-secondary
education needed to upgrade skills and gain new knowledge.
Therefore, by the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution
and the laws of the United States of America, including the Federal
Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. §App.), and in furtherance
of the purposes of Chapter 41 of title 5, United States Code, the Government
Employees Training Act of 1958 (Public Law 85507), as amended,
and Executive Order 11348, "Providing for the Further Training
of Government Employees," and in order to make effective use of
technology to improve training opportunities for Federal Government
employees, it is ordered as follows:
SECTION 1--ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
PRESIDENT'S TASK FORCE ON FEDERAL TRAINING TECHNOLOGY
SECTION 2--DUTIES OF THE TASK FORCE
SECTION 3--DUTIES OF ALL FEDERAL AGENCIES
SECTION 4--DUTIES OF SPECIFIC FEDERAL AGENCIES
SECTION 5--ESTABLISHMENT OF ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ON EXPANDING TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
SECTION 6--FUNCTIONS OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
SECTION 7--ADMINISTRATION OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
SECTION 8--DEFINITIONS
SECTION 9--JUDICIAL REVIEW
SECTION 1--Establishment of the President's Task Force on Federal
Training Technology
- The "President's Task Force on Federal Training Technology"
(Task Force) is established. The Task Force shall provide leadership
regarding the effective use of technology in training and education;
make training opportunities an integral part of continuing employment
in the Federal Government; and facilitate the ongoing coordination
of Federal activities concerning the use of technology in training.
The Task Force shall consist of the heads of the following departments
and agencies or their representa-tives: the Departments of State,
the Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Agri-culture, Commerce,
Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation,
Energy, and Education; the Office of Personnel Management, General
Services Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, National
Aeronautics and Space and Administration, Small Business Administration,
and Social Security Administration; a representative from the Small
Agency Council; and representatives from other relevant agencies and
related Federal councils, as determined by the Chair and Vice Chair
of the Task Force.
- Within 30 days of the date of this order, the head of each agency
or council shall designate a senior official to serve as a representative
to the Task Force. The representative shall report directly to the
agency head or the President's Management Council member on the agency's
or council's activities under this order.
- The Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) shall
be the Chair and the representative from the Department of Labor shall
be the Vice Chair of the Task Force.
- The Chair and Vice Chair shall appoint an Executive Director.
- The Task Force member agencies shall provide any required staffing
and funding, as appropriate.
SECTION 2--Duties of the Task Force
- Within 18 months of the date of this order, the Task Force shall
develop and recommend to the President, through the Assistant to the
President for Economic Policy and the Assistant to the President for
Science and Technology, a policy to make effective use of technology
to improve training opportunities for Federal Government employees.
The policy should promote and integrate the effective use of training
technologies to create affordable and convenient training opportuni-ties
to improve Federal employee performance. The Task Force shall seek
the views of experts from industry, academia, and State and local
govern-ments as the Task Force proceeds, as appropriate. Specifically,
the Task Force shall:
- develop strategies to improve the efficiency and availability
of training opportunities for Federal Government employees;
- form partnerships among key Federal agencies, State and local
govern-ments, businesses, universities, and other appropriate
entities to promote the development and use of high-quality training
opportunities;
- analyze the use of technology in existing training programs
and policies of the Task Force member agencies to determine what
changes, modifications, and innovations may be necessary to advance
training op-portunities;
- in consultation with the Department of Defense and the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, recommend standards for
training software and associated services purchased by Federal
agencies and con-tractors. These standards should be consistent
with voluntary industry consensus-based commercial standards.
Agencies, where appropriate, should use these standards in procurements
to promote reusable training component software and thereby reduce
duplication in the development of courseware;
- evaluate and, where appropriate, coordinate and collaborate
on, re-search and demonstration activities of Task Force member
agencies related to Federal training technology;
- identify and support cross-agency training areas that would
particu-larly benefit from new instructional technologies and
facilitate multiagency procurement and use of training materials,
where appropriate;
- in consultation with the General Services Administration, the
Office of Personnel Management, and the Office of Federal Procurement
Policy of the Office of Management and Budget (OFPP), promote
existing and new procurement vehicles that allow agencies to provide
innovative train-ing opportunities for Federal employees;
- recommend changes that may be needed to existing procurement
laws to further the objectives of this order and forward the recommenda-tions
to the Administrator of OFPP; and
- develop options and recommendations for establishing a Federal Individual
Training Account for each Federal worker for training relevant to
his or her Federal employment. To the extent permitted by law, such
accounts may be established with the funds allocated to the agency
for employee training. Approval for training would be within the discretion
of the individual employee's manager. Options and recommendations
shall be reported no later than 6 months from the date of this order.
SECTION 3--Duties of All Federal Agencies
- Each Federal agency shall, to the extent permitted by law:
- include as part of its annual budget process a set of goals
to provide the highest quality and most efficient training opportunities
possible to its employees, and a set of performance measures of
the quality and availability of training opportunities possible
to its employees. Such meas-ures should be, where appropriate,
based on outcomes related to perform-ance rather than time allocation;
- identify the resources necessary to achieve the aforementioned
goals and performance measures articulated in its annual performance
plan;
- and, where practicable, use the standards recommended by the
Task Force and published by the Office of Personnel Management
for purchasing training software and associated services; and
- subject to the availability of appropriations, post training
courses, information, and other learning opportunities on the
Department of Labor's America's Learning Exchange (ALX), or other
appropriate information dis-semination vehicles as determined
by the Task Force, to make information about Federal training
courses, information, and other learning opportuni-ties widely
available to Federal employees.
- Each Federal agency, to the extent permitted by law, is encouraged
to consider how savings achieved through the efficient use of training
tech-nology can be reinvested in improved training for their employees.
SECTION 4--Duties of Specific Federal Agencies
- In light of the Office of Personnel Management's responsibility
for developing Government-wide training policy, coordinating and managing
training policy programs, and providing technical assistance to Federal
agencies, the Office of Personnel Management or other appropriate
agency as determined by the Task Force shall:
- in consultation with the Task Force, the Department of Defense,
the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department
of Labor, and other appropriate agencies as determined by OPM,
publish the standards for training software and associated services
recommended by the Task Force; and
- ensure that qualification standards for civil service positions,
where appropriate, reflect standard industry certification practices.
- The Department of Labor or other appropriate agency as determined
by the Task Force shall, subject to the availability of appropriations:
- establish a specialized database for Federal training within the
framework of the Department of Labor's ALX, or other appropriate
information dissemination vehicles determined by the Task Force,
to make information about Federal training courses, information,
and other learning opportuni-ties widely available to Federal employees;
- establish and maintain a training technology website for agencies
to post training needs and to foster communication among the agencies
and between public and private sector organizations to identify
and meet common needs; and
- establish a staffed help desk and technology resource center
to support Federal agencies using training technology and to facilitate
the develop-ment of online training courses.
- The Department of Defense or other appropriate agency as determined
by the Task Force shall:
- in consultation with the National Institute of Standards and
Tech-nology, lead Federal participation in business and university
organizations charged with developing consensus standards for training
software and associated services and lead the Federal review of
the standards; and
- provide guidance to Defense agencies and advise the civilian
agencies, as appropriate, on how best to use these standards for
large-scale develop-ment and implementation of efficient and effective
distributed learning technologies.
- Each Executive department shall designate at least one subject area
of training that it will use to demonstrate opportunities in technology-based
training and assign an agency leader in the designated area. Leaders
in these training technology experiments shall work closely with other
agen-cies with similar training interests. Each Executive department
shall develop a plan for measuring and evaluating the effectiveness,
cost-effectiveness, and benefits to employees and the agency for each
designated subject area.
SECTION 5--Establishment of Advisory Committee on Expanding Training
Opportunities
The Advisory Committee on Expanding Training Opportunities (Committee)
is established. The Committee shall consist of not more that 20 members
appointed by the President from outside the Federal Government, including
representatives of the research, education, labor, and training communities,
information technology sector, and representatives from other critical
sectors. The President shall designate Co-Chairs from among the members
of the Committee.
SECTION 6--Functions of the Advisory Committee
The Committee shall provide the President, through the Assistant to
the President for Economic Policy and the Assistant to the President
for Science and Technology (Assistants to the President), with:
- an independent assessment of:
- progress made by the Federal Government in its use and integration
of technology in training programs, particularly in the use of
voluntary industry consensus-based commercial standards for training
software and associated services;
- how Federal Government programs, initiatives, and policies can
en-courage or accelerate training technology to provide more accessible,
more timely, and more cost-effective training opportunities for
all Americans;
- mechanisms for the Federal Government to encourage private
sector investment in the development of high-quality instructional
software and wider deployment and utilization of technology-mediated
instruction so that all Americans may take advantage of the opportunities
provided by learning technology; and
- the appropriate Federal Government role in research and development
for learning technologies and their applications in order to develop
high-quality training and education opportunities for all Americans;
- an analysis of options for helping adult Americans finance the
training and post-secondary education needed to upgrade skills and
gain new knowl-edge. Options for financial mechanisms may include
grants, tax incentives, low-interest loans, or other vehicles to make
training and post-secondary education accessible to adults throughout
their lifetimes; and
- advice on other issues regarding emerging technologies in government
training and financing training and post-secondary education for adult
Ameri-cans as specified by the Assistants to the President.
SECTION 7--Administration of the Advisory Committee
- To the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability
of appropriations, the Office of Person-nel Management shall provide
the financial and administrative support for the Committee.
- The heads of Executive agencies shall, to the extent permitted
by law, provide to the Committee such information as it may require
for the purpose of carrying out its functions.
- The Committee Co-Chairs may, from time to time, invite experts
to submit information to the Committee and may form subcommittees
or work-ing groups within the Committee to review specific issues.
- Members of the Committee shall serve without compensation but shall
be allowed travel expenses, including per diem instead of subsistence,
as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently in the Government
service (5 U.S.C. §57015707).
- Notwithstanding any other Executive order, the functions of the
Presi-dent under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended, that
are appli-cable to the Committee, except that of reporting to the
Congress, shall be performed by the Office of Personnel Management
in accordance with guidelines that have been issued by the Administrator
of General Services.
- The Committee shall terminate 2 years from the date of this order
unless extended by the President prior to such date.
SECTION 8--Definitions
- As used in this order, the terms "agency," "employee,"
"Government," and "training" have the meaning
given to those terms, respectively, by section 4101 of title 5, United
States Code.
- The term "technology," means any equipment or interconnected
system or subsystem of equipment that is used in the automatic acquisition,
storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching,
inter-change, transmission, or reception of data or information, including
computers, ancillary equipment, software, firmware and similar procedures,
services (including support services), and related resources. For
purposes of the preceding sentence, equipment is used by an Executive
agency if the equipment is used by the Executive agency directly or
is used by a contractor under a contract with the Executive agency
that requires the use of such equipment. The term "technology"
does not include any equipment that is acquired by a Federal contractor
incidental to a Federal contract.
SECTION 9--Judicial Review
This order does not create any enforceable rights against the United
States, its agencies, its officers, or any person.