NSF ACADEMY
Pius J. Egbelu
Dean
NSF Academy
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
Division of Administrative Services
Division of Human Resource Management
1
Division of Information Systems
NSF Academy
Purpose
• Briefly review the NSF Academy’s role
• Future strategies
• Some current initiatives
• Questions & answers
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Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Vision
• Be recognized as a leader nationally for
excellence in keeping the staff engaged in
continuous learning to enhance their work
performance, enrich human capital, and meet
the present and future needs of NSF.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Academy Mission
• Serve as a catalyst in creating a
culture of continuous learning at
NSF that develops a “worldclass” workforce capable of
meeting the present and future
needs of the Foundation.
• Align learning programs with the
mission and strategic goals of
NSF
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Mission
• Promote organizational
excellence through the
advancement of human capital by
proactively identifying and
implementing the programs
necessary for the development of
NSF staff at all levels;
• Obtain and maintain a
progressive leadership position, in
the use of technology, blended
learning, and eLearning.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Shift in Paradigm
• Our responsibility is to offer and promote
learning opportunities that:
- enrich the staff professionally.
- Foster continuous learning culture.
- Cultivate a “world class” NSF staff
• Training is only a part of our responsibility.
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Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Our Goals
• Provide the staff with learning opportunities that align
their skills with NSF mission and goals.
• Provide opportunities to enrich the personal and
professional development of the staff.
• Be responsive to changes in work requirements driven
by advances in science and technology to keep the staff
at the cutting-edge of their profession.
• Provide a mixture of learning media that would include
courses, workshops, lectures, symposia, and promote
self learning initiatives.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Guiding principles in meeting goals
Course
Accessibility
Human Capital
Enrichment
Achieving organizational
excellence and human
capital development
Proactive
and Agile
Engagement
Partnerships
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Course Accessibility
Our goal is to offer courses in media that allow the staff
to take classes at anytime of the day and at any setting
Of their choice.
• Identify and fight barriers to continuous learning – lack time and
interest.
• Provide flexibility in course offerings
- courses for different employee categories
- e-learning (online course management and offerings)
- m-learning (use of mobile technologies that can offer course
offering flexibility – Ipod, MP3 player, etc)
- Scheduling flexibility
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Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Concept of m-learning examples
Give the staff access to learning resources in portable and
convenient formats.
• MP3 downloads of important NSF staff presentations.
• Audiobook downloads to listen to on desktops or MP3 players
during commute.
• MP3 players preloaded with audiobooks and professional
development courses to listen to at NSF onsite gym.
• Enable staff to attend Academy training courses without having
to leave their desks.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Course Enrichment
Offer courses that are relevant and have the potential to advance
employee career interests while satisfying the NSF mission and
goals.
• Courses taken by the staff should be goal oriented to address
required core competencies and general knowledge.
•There is no “one course” that can meet the needs of all.
• Recognize overarching needs foundation wide and targeted
needs, e.g., Directorate/Division needs.
• Address courses that meet both the present and the future NSF
needs.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Course enrichment
• Work toward developing mechanisms to help Directorates and Divisions
identify the learning needs of their staff.
• Pursue a model of shared responsibility in course development between
the Academy and the Directorates/Divisions.
Academy  overarching courses.
Directorates/Divisions & Academy  targeted courses.
• Order and organization are required in course development and offerings.
• Academy to serve as a central repository and coordinator for all
Foundation courses.
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Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Proactive & Agile
Be anticipatory of future human capital needs and take initiative to
offer courses in a timely manner to meet the demand.
• Advances in science and technology are changing work demands.
• Anticipate future staff needs and be agile in responding to it.
• Directorates and Divisions to play key role in this.
• Establish regular data collection process on new course demands
from directorates for future work requirements and human
capital development needs.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Partnerships
Seek partnerships with organizations within and outside NSF. Greater
role for those in leadership or supervisory positions. Example: Greater
participation and interest in assessing employee career/professional
development needs .
• Cornerstone to the Academy’s mission and goals in creating a
continuous learning culture.
Internal Partnerships: All administrative units of NSF
Directorates
Divisions
Offices
External Partnerships: Private sector
Universities
Peer institutions overseas
Other government agencies
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Internal Partnerships
• Greater exchange of ideas and information sharing.
• Greater involvement in assessing staff professional development
needs.
- Collaboration between the staff and supervisors
- Greater involvement of supervisors and the staff in career
planning and learning to enhance performance.
- Set annual learning/professional development goals
- Development of employee career planning roadmap
- Get employees interests up in learning.
- Give feedback to the Academy on needs for new courses.
- Provide/appoint mentors to employees.
•Engage supervisors as their unit champions for continuous learning.
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Office of Information and Resource Management
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Support to Directorates
•To know where next to go, you have to know where you are
or have been.
•To counsel effectively, supervisors have to know the employee
history of learning participation.
•Academy will embark on developing employee learning
participation profile database.
•Academy will generate periodic employee learning
participation statistics by Directorates and Divisions.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
External Partnerships
•The Academy does not have the manpower or the
funding to develop all courses that may be required.
•Partnership with other organizations focused on
employee learning will be pursued.
•Benefits from such partnerships are leveraging on
resources and best practices, knowledge transfer,
and information sharing.
•We consider external partnerships very important.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Engagement: Division & Directorate levels
Keep all levels of the Foundation engaged. Academy’s success
in its mission depends on the attitude and support of
supervisors toward continuous learning and human capital
development.
• Academy’s long-term goal: Institutionalize
“continuous learning” as part of employee’s job
responsibilities.
• Supervisors to see career counseling/mentoring as
part of supervisory responsibilities.
• Review employee learning history periodically or on
an annual basis.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Engagement: Division & Directorate levels
Dissociate annual learning reviews from annual performance
reviews to avoid misinterpretation of intent.
•
• Use the outcome of the review to determine the individual
staff learning needs.
• Set learning goals for the following year in the plan.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
CREATING INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN (IDP)
Employee career plan
Current job
requirements
Course history
Changes in job
requirements
Employee profile
Other work related
factors
Employee
Competency
Career/Learning
goals
Employee
learning plan
Annual individual
Dev. plan
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Goal: See that IDPs are
taken more seriously.
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Our model for staff participation
Academy Working Group (AWG) to serve as internal advisory
committee, liaisons, unit champions and advocates.
NSF Academy
Directorate
Division
Divisional Staff
National Science Foundation
Division
Directorate
Division
Division
Admin Office
Division
Division
Divisional Staff
Office of Information and Resource Management
Division
Divisional Staff
NSF Academy
Course Development Approach
Upper
management
Service offices
concerns
Overarching
concerns
Suite of courses
Academy
team
Direct/Div
New Federal
reqmts
Internally
developed
courses
Targeted
concerns
Course
offerings
Externally
developed
courses
Directorates
Employees
Divisions
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Some New Initiatives
• Piloting mentoring program in CISE Directorate
- Propagate Foundation-wide later.
• Pursuing internal & external partnerships.
- To leverage on resources and strengths
- Expand learning opportunities
- Engage outside experts on Academy programs.
• Flexible learning opportunities-use mobile audio/visual
learning (m-learning) devices to make courses more
accessible.
- Laptops,
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MP3 players
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Some New Initiatives
• New employees orientation (NEO)
- In partnership with HRM & Directorates
• Career counseling
• Knowledge retention and management
- Groove community of practice
- Use of experienced NSF subject experts.
• Updating program managers seminar.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy
Conclusion
• Continuous learning is good for the staff and the
Foundation.
• In today’s business climate, learning should not taken as
an option but an integral element of any job.
• The Academy is setup to become the agent to bring
about this paradigm shift in learning culture at NSF.
• Institutionalizing learning as a culture will ensure that
NSF remains a world class organization it is known to
be.
National Science Foundation
Office of Information and Resource Management
NSF Academy