22 U.S.C. § 4023: Career development program

Summary

The Secretary must create a professional development program so Service members get the skills and knowledge they need at each career stage. For Foreign Service officers, the program should especially focus on training career candidates and midcareer officers (after tenure and when nearing Senior Foreign Service eligibility) to broaden their qualifications for higher jobs. Training for other staff should focus on improving job-specific skills and the management skills needed for their work. Junior officer training must focus on analysis and reporting plus consular, administrative, and language skills for future assignments. Midcareer training must focus on management, functional, negotiating, and policy skills to prepare officers for senior roles. The program should give people chances to meet clear professional standards. Career candidates should finish candidate training before getting career status, and members should finish midcareer training before appointment to the Senior Foreign Service. The Secretary should, as much as possible, set up ways for successful courses that match graduate-level work to count toward university degrees. Training can be run by the Department and by other government or non-government organizations the Secretary finds appropriate.

Title 22, §4023

Foreign Relations and Intercourse, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Establishment; primary attention and emphasis

The Secretary shall establish a professional development program to assure that members of the Service obtain the skills and knowledge required at the various stages of their careers. With regard to Foreign Service officers, primary attention shall be given to training for career candidate officers and for midcareer officers, both after achieving tenure and as they approach eligibility for entry to the Senior Foreign Service, to enhance and broaden their qualifications for more senior levels of responsibility in the Service. Training for other members of the Service shall emphasize programs designed to enhance their particular skills and expert knowledge, including development of the management skills appropriate to their occupational categories.

(b)Primary direction for Junior Foreign Service officer training and midcareer training

Junior Foreign Service officer training shall be directed primarily toward providing expert knowledge in the basic functions of analysis and reporting as well as in consular, administrative, and linguistic skills relevant to the full range of future job assignments. Midcareer training shall be directed primarily toward development and perfection of management, functional, negotiating, and policy development skills to prepare the officers progressively for more senior levels of responsibility.

(c)Purpose; completion of training as condition for placement or appointment

At each stage the program of professional development should be designed to provide members of the Service with the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge relevant to clearly established professional standards of expected performance. Career candidates should satisfactorily complete candidate training prior to attainment of career status. Members of the Service should satisfactorily complete midcareer training before appointment to the Senior Foreign Service.

(d)University degree credit

In formulating programs under this section, the Secretary should establish a system to provide, insofar as possible, credit toward university degrees for successful completion of courses comparable to graduate-level, university courses.

(e)Institutions conducting training

Training provided under this section shall be conducted by the Department and by other governmental and nongovernmental institutions as the Secretary may consider appropriate.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1987—Subsec. (f). Pub. L. 100–204 struck out subsec. (f) which related to report to Congress and President.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Professional Development Pub. L. 117–263, div. I, title XCII, § 9211, Dec. 23, 2022, 136 Stat. 3874, provided that: “(a) Requirements.—The Secretary [of State] shall strongly encourage that Foreign Service officers seeking entry into the Senior Foreign Service participate in professional development described in subsection (c). “(b) Requirements.—Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act [Dec. 23, 2022], the Secretary shall submit recommendations on requiring that Foreign Service officers complete professional development described in subsection (c) to be eligible for entry into the Senior Foreign Service. “(c) Professional Development Described.—Professional development described in this subsection is not less than 6 months of training or experience outside of the Department [of State], including time spent—“(1) as a detailee to another government agency, including Congress or a State, Tribal, or local government; or “(2) in Department-sponsored and -funded university training that results in an advanced degree, excluding time spent at a university that is fully funded or operated by the Federal Government. “(d) Promotion Precepts.—The Secretary shall instruct promotion boards to consider positively long-term training and out-of-agency detail assignments as described in this section.”

§4023 Career Development Program