The consortium has created a national certification and professional development program for public service oriented chief information officers and for those interested in becoming a public service CIO. The program is designed with a core curriculum applicable for senior public sector IT leadership across the nation.
Based on active engagement with the Florida Local Government Information Systems Association (FLGISA) and the North Carolina Local Government Information Systems Association (NCLGISA), this core curriculum has been augmented with special modules focused on the needs of the local government sector. In the near future, the consortium plans to release additional modules focused on needs specific to state government. Both versions of the program offer the same nationally recognized public service CIO certification.
The course will span 240 professional development hours over a 12 month period. It will include five multi-day in-person classes to be held every two to three months. Subject matter experts and peer professionals will teach these classes, which will include facilitated and group discussions.
Between each of the five physical classes, the consortium will provide for individual work and instructor-led assignments, and group interaction and projects via the Web.
"Florida State University and the University of North Carolina have strong educational programs for local officials in their respective states," said Alan Shark, executive director of PTI. "By teaming with PTI, we are able to adapt various components of these outstanding programs with new features and content and offer a truly national professional development and certification program."
The program is focused on helping CIOs effectively serve their local government as part of the executive leadership team. The curriculum is designed around the following topics:
- Understanding the Enterprise
- What Local Governments Want and Need from IT
- What is the Real Role of the CIO?
- IT as a Customer Service Organization
- Strategic Technology Planning
- Strategic Goal Alignment
- Creating the Business Case
- Records Management
- HR Issues
- Leadership
- Intergenerational Workforce and Succession Planning
- Project Management and Portfolio Management
- Risk Management
- Change Management
- Emerging Trends and Leading Practices
"The opportunities offered through the consortium will augment the skills that executives have already achieved in their roles of delivering technology services in local government," said Shark. "Participation in this program will improve the leadership and managerial skills, business acumen and organizational expertise of technology executives. Unlike many other local government professions, there has been no recognized technology professional development and certification program for local government technology executives -- until now."
The Consortium intends to implement the "national" version of the local government and state government program nationwide. While complying with the national certification requirements, the University of North Carolina and Florida State University currently provide customized modules specific to their local government and their state government IT leadership. Using this model, the Consortium for State and Local Government Technology Leadership Development expects to grow the program with universities in other states while maintaining focus on national certification based on the valuable core requirements.
