CIO mentoring program aims to keep IT workers in the fold

A new mentoring program sponsored by the federal Chief Information Officers Council aims to retain government information technology employees by focusing on training and development, according to council member Gloria Parker, CIO at the Housing and Urban Development Department. "We really cannot retain our IT workers if we're not developing them, because there's no reason to hang around when they can go somewhere else and get the skills they need to move their career forward," Parker said during a press conference announcing the mentoring program Wednesday. The CIO Council, established by an executive order in 1996, is an interagency group of federal agencies' top information technology executives. The group makes recommendations on IT management policies and assesses the needs of the government's IT workforce. The federal CIO Mentoring Program will allow federal employees to spend a year working on council committee assignments, with CIOs serving as their mentors. "The face of an IT professional in government is changing," Parker said. "We're looking more for project management skills and procurement skills." Candidates for the program must be nominated by their agencies and should be involved in major IT projects and be in a position to "make a difference," Parker said. Assignments will match as closely as possible a candidate's interests and the council's pending projects, with 12 to 20 proteges scheduled to start in the first group in October. Proteges could work on the CIO Council's Security Committee projects such as public key infrastructure, which supports secure electronic commerce and electronic messaging as well as other federal agency programs requiring the use of public key cryptography. Other potential projects include working with Parker, who heads the IT Workforce Committee, in creating an automated development tool that will help IT workers determine what training they need to reach their career goals. "They can complete that project and they'll have that on their resume that they helped develop the governmentwide skills assessment tool," Parker said. Benefits of the program include being in a position to influence Council programs that have an impact on agencies and gaining best practices skills to take back to departments and agencies when the mentorship program ends. "We want to provide them with career development opportunities and expose them to the top IT workers in government," Parker said.