Upward mobility within organizations is important to all employees. Our Career Development courses are designed to enhance the professional development, leadership skills, and organizational knowledge of Federal employees at all levels. We also offer Career Management Courses that address the various needs of Federal employees both during and after their government tenure. The following information provides decriptions of our Federal Career Development Program and individual Career Enhancement courses:

 

• The Federal Career Development Program

• Federal Career Enhancement Courses

 

The Federal Career Development Program (FCDP)

 

This program targets Federal service/support personnel, grade levels GS-2 through GS-9. While not a placement or promotion program, the FCDP is customized to provide focused staff development that supports the workforce and organizational goals of the agency. TLS will customize this 6-week program to meet the requirements of your agency.

 

Session 1

Kick-off Session & Assessment Workshop

Part 1: Welcome Ceremony/Meet & Greet
Part 2: Profiles and Assessment (online & hardcopy)

• Agenda

• Welcome

• Opening Remarks

• Introduction of the Program Participants

• Introduction of the participants Supervisors

• Program Overview

 

Session 2

Assessment Review Session

Learning Objectives
By the end of the session participants will be able to:

• Identify your values, skills and interests

• List seven career moves besides promotion and determine your best moves

• Develop a career action plan

• Establish career S.M.A.R.T. goals

• Be the best you can be now

 

Session 3

Teamwork & Collaboration

Learning Objectives
By the end of the session participants will be able to:

• Provide an opportunity for participants to get to know one another, and share ideas for developing their teams

• Understand the value of working as a team

• Recognize the critical role communication skills will play in building and maintaining a team atmosphere

• Explore your team player style and identify how it can be used effectively with your own team

• Develop and practice techniques for handling counterproductive team behavior

• Identify ways that team members can be involved and grow in a team setting

• Promote trust and rapport by exploring your team player style and how it impacts on group dynamics

• Recognize the key elements that move a team from involvement to empowerment and how to give these elements to your team

 

Session 4

Workplace Writing

This writing workshop will provide a grammar refresher and basic business writing rules. Exploring email rules, etiquette and formatting issues will also be addressed.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the session participants will have:

• Improved their ability to identify and correct errors

• Refreshed their understanding of punctuation and grammar rules

• Reviewed common grammar and usage problems

• Learned the difference between many commonly confused words

• Developed and practiced proofreading strategies

• Identify and correct run-on sentences and fragments

• Correct confusing, choppy and/or awkward sentences

• Identified and defined appropriate email format, structure, and etiquette

 

Session 5

Basic Project Management

This course is designed to take the mystery out of project management.  Learn project management principles, guidelines and critical success factors.  Understand the roles and key working parts of the project.  Learn strategies for planning, executing and evaluating a project.

Learning objectives
By the end of these presentations participants will be able to:

• Understand the difference between working on a project and other typical work activities

• Identify how project management is a tool that can enhance performance

• Review key project documents to understand why they are important

• Explain what project management entails and what it does not

• Identify the different roles of the project team members

• Identify tips for communicating more effectively about project issues

 

Session 6

Presentation Skills

This session will address techniques to help improve confidence and delivery of presentations.
Learning objectives

By the end of these presentations participants will be able to:

• Explain why speaking abilities are important

• Discuss some of the basics of how to make an effective presentation

• List the steps involved to develop a presentation draft

• Outline the key steps on how to deliver a winning presentation

• Explain how to answer questions in an effective manner

• Create an action plan

 

Session 7

Resumes and KSA Writing

This hands-on training session will discuss techniques for writing effective KSAs, Federal Style Resumes and Individual Development Plans. Participants will have opportunity to write, have critiqued and rewrite these critical documents. This session is conducted by a Certified Federal Résumé Writer.

Learning objectives
By the end of the session participants will be able to:

• Write an effective resume and KSAs

• Prepare an IDP for discussion with supervisor

• Understand Performance Management program

 

Session 8

Professional Appearance and Interviewing Skills

This session will stress the importance of a professional appearance, making a good first impression and current interviewing techniques. The session will use role-plays and case studies to engage learners. 

 

Session 9

Problem Solving

This session is designed to help participants understand that the power to find creative solutions lies in our ability to search and find facts that relate to the situation, and put them together in ways that work.

Learning objectives
By the end of the session participants will be able to:

• Increase your awareness of problem solving steps and problem-solving tools

• Distinguish root causes from symptoms to identify the right solution for the right problem

• Improve your problem-solving and decision making skills through identifying your own problem-solving style

• Improve your ability to participate in and communicate about a collaborative problem-solving process

• Recognize the top ten rules of good decision-making

 

Session 10

Organizational Savvy & Networking

The overall objective is to prepare participants to attract positive attention to themselves through communication and lobbying efforts that will help them to convey their message and persuade others.
Learning objectives
By the end of these presentations participants will be able to:

• Discuss the importance of political savvy

• Develop a bigger picture perspective

• Identify decision makers and trends

• Explore ways to increase organizational exposure

• Introduce Network Nuances

• Practice networking and conversation skills in mock networking session

• Action Planning and Goal Setting

 

 

 

Career Enhancement Courses

 

Workquakes

This workshop will present the participant with information about the job environment and the changes taking place in the federal workplace.  Participants will learn how to thrive during the white water rapids of today’s business world and how to make it through downsizing.  Participants will discover their strengths and learn how to reduce their areas of weakness in order to ensure their career success.

 

Career Anchors

Participants will discover their career anchors and how their values relate to their career choices.  Regardless of your present job or career, your future decisions will be easier and more valid if you have a clear understanding of your orientation towards work, your motives, your values and your self-perceived talents.  Such understanding will be enhanced by this workshop.  A self-assessment instrument called Career Anchors will be used.

 

Putting Your Values to Work

You spend at least 2,000 hours a year working. You might as well spend that time doing something you care about. Values define what we consider to be important. They are the standards by which we define our bottom line priorities. If our work incorporates our values, we are likely to find that what we do is meaningful, purposeful and important. We will believe in and be committed to our work. This session will use an assessment instrument to aid you in identifying your values and goals.

 

Up is not the Only Way

Participants use a self-assessment to determine their readiness to move to another position in the organization. Six different ways of moving within a company are discussed and explored.  Success is redefined from moving up to finding your niche, whether that’s moving up, moving across, moving down, enrichment or discovery.  In this age of flatter organizations, reorganizations, downsizing and rightsizing, this session is timely, relevant and practical.

 

Deal Me In - Interest Inventory

This session will help participants to identify career related interests and understand the relationship of interests, skills, and development needs. Participants will select areas for future growth and analyze ways to incorporate more of their interests in order to enrich their current job.