General Information
Initiative Name: Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act (FBPTA)
Primary Contact
Brian Gilligan
National Program Manager
General Services Administration Office
Office of High Performance Buildings
1800 F Street, NW Washington DC, 20417
202-208-0660
brian.gilligan@gsa.gov
www.fmi.gov
Additional Contact
Maureen Roskoski
Facility Engineering Associates, PC
12701 Fair Lakes Circle, Suite 101
Fairfax, VA 22033
703-591-4855
Maureen.roskoski@feapc.com
www.feapc.com
DESCRIPTION
Initiative Type: The Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act (FBPTA) of 2010 requires all federal personnel providing building operations and maintenance services to demonstrate competencies necessary to effectively operate government facilities.
Sponsoring / Supporting Organizations: The mission of the GSA Office of Federal High Performance Buildings is to catalyze and facilitate the Federal government to operate more efficiently and effectively, and lead the marketplace to sustainability, by minimizing the Federal footprint through efficient use of energy, water, and resources, and by creating healthy productive workspaces. The Office of Federal High Performance Buildings has an interdisciplinary team with expertise in energy, water, air quality, sustainable design, facilities management, budgeting, human behavior, organizational effectiveness, communications, and research.
Geographic Reach: Nationwide
Initiative Start Date: The Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act became law in 2010.
Initiative End Date: Current—Ongoing Program
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
High-performance buildings require the care of a workforce with advanced competencies in operations, maintenance, and energy-related technologies. As buildings become more efficient, they require a highperformance workforce that can maintain and operate them at to their full potential.
Let's look at this from a personal perspective. John Doe, a relatively new employee at the General Services Administration faced a challenge. John knows he needs additional skills for his new position but doesn't know exactly what they are or where to find training to teach those skills. How can he reduce operational spending through his own professional development?
This is accomplished through the following FBPTA program objectives:
- Develop core competencies for federal buildings personnel
- Recommended curriculum and continuing education
- Annual updates to competencies and curriculum
- Provide implementation support to federal agencies
AN INDIVIDUAL'S JOURNEY
This is how John Doe created his professional development plan. The name has been changed but this is a real person's story about using the process and tools developed by GSA's FBPTA program to further personal professional growth. John wanted to increase his facility management competencies to increase his effectiveness at his job and to maintain operational improvements in the buildings he works in.
OVERVIEW
- John Doe is a Building Services Specialist with the GSA
- He brings 20 Years of military service experience
- He has 10 Years in the Facility Management Field
- Relatively new to GSA, 2 Years at Building Services Specialist position
PERSONAL GOALS
- Increase overall competency in facility management
- Identify and fill job-specific skills gaps
- Identify personal priorities for training and development
PERSONAL CHALLENGES
- Facing decreasing training budgets within his organization
- Finding the RIGHT Training to fit his personal professional needs
ACCELERATE FM (AFM)
John entered the training he had already completed in to the AFM tool including:
- Building Operator Certification Level I
- Several Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) courses
- Government specific facility management and building optimization courses
John then used AFM to determine his job-specific skills gaps. As a GSA Building Services Specialist, John has specific FBPTA competencies assigned to his position. Based on previous training completed, nearly one third of the competencies GSA assigned to his position had been covered by training he'd already completed. He then used AFM helped identify FBPTA-Aligned training to fill the remaining gaps and found that the Facility Management Professional (FMP) would cover a lot of his needs. John knew from his supervisor that his region, based on its internal organizational training plan, was offering the FMP course to all those interested. He got permission to join and complete his FMP.
John and his supervisor also used AFM's self-assessment feature to consider how proficient they felt he actually was in all remaining skills gaps. Completing formal training is important, but, based on his significant prior military experience there was a lot he already knew. One area he didn't feel as confident in was "Performance Measures."
His supervisor also assessed his skills and they both agreed this would be a good area to prioritize for future training.
FEDERAL SKILLS ASSESSMENT TEST (FEDSAT)
Conducting the self-assessment in AFM led John to realize that he should get more credit for the knowledge he had gained through his military and facility management experience. John decided to try FEDSAT, a self-paced exam that helps users screen their basic knowledge of all the most critical FBPTA competencies. These "high-priority" competencies constitute the most basic level of skills that federal facilities personnel should have. By completing this tool, John was able to leverage his current knowledge to gain credit for 77 or almost all of the FBPTA's high priority competencies.
SHORT-TERM RESULTS
Using AFM and FEDSAT John was able to accomplish a lot in a little time including:
-
Identified job-specific skills gaps and personal priorities for training
-
Completed the FMP through a region-wide course offering (aligned with his Region's FBPTA business-case for region-wide training)
-
Met or exceeded Supervisor expectations on the vast majority of his current job-specific skill requirements and agreed on a long-term training plan
LONG-TERM RESULTS
-
Developed a personalized long term professional development plan.
-
Supervisor approved CFM for this plan based on AccelerateFM gap analysis.
BENEFITS TO FEDERAL EMPLOYEES
Using the FBPTA tools to track your professional development allows you to identify training that specifically meets the needs of your job, demonstrate your competence in the FBPTA competency areas, and align your training with your agency's FBPTA compliance. By using the FBPTA tools, you can link actual job needs to training that will fill those needs and build a better business case for your training justification.
- Demonstrate Competency With The FBPTA Competency Areas
- Finding the Right Training to Meet Your Job Needs and Agency Priorities
- Build a Business Case for Training
RESOURCES
| Resource | Website |
|---|---|
| Facilities Management Institute - Houses Accelerate FM, contains FBPTA information, and other workforce resources | fmi.gov |
| Accelerate FM - Professional development planning and FBPTA compliance documentation tool | afm.fmi.gov |
| FEDSAT - Skills assessment tool to assess competency related to high priority FBPTA performances | sftool.gov/fedsat |
| Career Map Tool - Career mapping tool that shows entry points and career progression within energy and facilities industry | facilitiescareermap.feapc.com |
