Washington, D.C. - U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kay Coles James today announced that OPM has signed agreements with the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and FasTrac as additional e-Learning service providers. Through these new agreements, government agencies related to the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security will benefit by linking to governmentwide e-Learning content and reference materials and tools, government community of practice sites, and collaboration group tools.

"Any opportunity OPM has to increase access to advanced learning for federal employees in the intelligence and defense community is a priority," stated James. "In advancing President George W. Bush's Management Agenda, OPM has to ensure agencies can benefit from a greater choice of service providers while moving toward standardized information technology, and through the new agreements, greater energy will be given to the intelligence, defense, and homeland security needs of our agencies."

The e-Training initiative provides agencies with additional tools to strategically develop their human capital. It reflects a unified approach across government to support the continuous learning of the federal work force, which in turn leads to increased federal employee job satisfaction and better job performance.

"Having agreements with NTIS and FasTrac enables OPM to reach out to more agencies with a larger selection of products and additional contracting vehicles that compliment the current governmentwide e-Learning portal, www.GoLearn.gov," OPM e-Government Manager Norm Enger stated. "With the new agreements, NTIS, FasTrac, and GoLearn support the intelligence, defense, and homeland security communities by enhancing the available training resources through increased savings by pricing, unification of governmentwide content, and knowledge resources.

The agreements between the service providers and the e-Training initiative enable better government e-Learning through streamlining information technology standards, purchases, and enhancements to meet the challenges of our agencies' missions."

Currently, GoLearn.gov has registered approximately 200,000 users who completed over 200,000 online courses. There are nearly 40 federal agencies participating in the e-Training initiative and account for almost $15 million in fiscal year 2003 cost savings.

E-Training is one of twenty-four e-Government initiatives outlined in the President's Management Agenda, President Bush's strategy for making the federal government more focused on citizens and results, and one of five e-Government initiatives managed by OPM.