FSI – eLearning

The Department of State’s (DoS) Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the Federal Government’s primary training institution for the U.S. foreign affairs community. It is one of five Federal E-Gov E-Training providers and is an Information Systems Security Line of Business Shared Services Center. FSI prepares American diplomats and other professionals to advance U.S. interests overseas and in Washington and develops the men and women our nation requires to fulfill our leadership role in world affairs.

FSI is committed to providing outstanding and cost-effective training and education to foreign affairs professionals across the federal sector. FSI provides more than 800 classroom courses, including those taught in over 70 foreign languages. In addition, almost 300 custom-developed eLearning products and 2,500 commercially produced eLearning courses are available 24/7 to a worldwide audience. In fiscal year 2014 alone, course enrollments and completions topped 140,000 from State Department personnel and 47 other government agencies and the military service branches.

FSI’s programs include training for professional development in administrative, consular, economic, political, and public diplomacy cones for both Foreign Service and Civil Service Specialists. Customized training is offered for specialists in the fields of information management, office management, security, international development, global health and more.  FSI also supports the professional development of staff and technical specialists posted to embassies and consulates worldwide, including Foreign Service Nationals and Eligible Family Members who work as civil service employees for the State Department and other agencies. Ranging in length from one day to two years, courses are designed to promote successful performance in each professional assignment, to ease the adjustment to other countries and cultures, and to enhance the leadership and management capabilities of the U.S. foreign affairs community.

Ventura staff within the Instructional Support Division executes and secures the strategic technology initiatives and investments necessary to provide the solutions, products, and services to meet the training mission of FSI. Some of most notable accomplishments to date include the following:

• FSI was designated one of 5 primary eTraining providers across the federal sector, providing customized training options to a broad array of federal clients.
• Working in collaboration with EX partners FSI/ISD staff initiated and deployed the first mobile enabled learning resources for student access, providing rapid development of 5 consular based language programs for mobile devices.
• FSI/ISD supports the broad initiative for a Master’s of Diplomacy curriculum to support DoS diplomatic personnel, designing a groundbreaking blended learning approach for professional development within DoS.