A skills-driven process for training computer professionals

Abstract

Loral Federal Systems (LFS). formerly the IBM Federal Systems Company, has always placed a heavy emphasis on training. Changes in the structure of LFS and the growth of services businesses required significant changes in the development, acquisition, management, and deployment of skilled people. In response to these changes, there has been a major shift to a skills-driven process in our approach to training. There is now total focus on training to develop customer-valued skills at the time those skills are needed. This paper describes how this process has been implemented in the LFS Gaithersburg Division, beginning with strategic skills planning and continuing down to individual skills development by each employee. The current status of our training program and some measurements/metrics from implementing our skills-driven process are also presented.