Graduate School USA has always been at the forefront of training for tomorrow’s leaders. For example, the School was the first in the nation to teach management and supervision to federal employees. In 1935, director A.F. Woods decided to offer the course as a 10-week trial series with a capacity of only 250 students. Developed to meet government demand for basic training in personnel administration and management, this was the first course open to all government employees, not just those in the Department of Agriculture. The school received over 800 applications for the weekly lectures, more than the combined enrollment in all other curriculums.

The course description reads: “Elements of Personnel Administration is essentially a study of the management of personnel on the job. The lectures will cover not only the theory and principles of the subject, but actual techniques and methods developed through research and tested by experience in progressive organizations in my judgment, the primary responsibility for making government jobs satisfying and interesting rests both with the employee and with the supervisor. If supervision is good, work results tend to be good; if supervision is bad, work results tend to be poor.”

Leadership and management training courses offered throughout our history include:

Supervisory Training – 1940
Federal Administrative Management – 1944
Supervision – 1959
Modern Supervisory Practice – 1962
Administration and Supervision-Basic Principles and Practices – 1962
Modern Supervisory Practices – 1970
Managing Off-Site Employees – 1998
 

One of the School’s champions of leadership training was Dr. Phillip Hudson, director of the Graduate School in the 1980s and early 90s. A great believer in leadership training for federal employees, he was instrumental in increasing the school’s leadership offerings. Hudson spearheaded the School’s yearly Dimensions of Leadership Conference throughout the 1990s. This conference brought together government professionals who conducted sessions on the qualities needed to be a leader in the federal government. When the Graduate School acquired the training facilities of the Office of Personnel Management in 1995, we were able to expand our leadership offerings. This included creating the Center for Leadership and Management (CLM). The Center offers four popular long-term training programs tailored to the needs of government employees from the GS 4 to GS 15 levels or equivalent. Twenty-six years later the CLP program continues to address the needs of organizations and their employees, helping them stay relevant, adapt to change, and be equipped with the necessary skills to lead and be led.

Dr. Hudson was a true believer in leadership training as a way to find future government leaders. He said, "Most will agree about the need for productive leadership in the federal government and that the demands for leadership will get greater and greater. We need to wrestle with the important role of leadership - what is it and how do we get in our organizations? "

Graduate School USA believes in the power of leaders at all levels of an organization to shape and direct change. Our Center for Leadership and Management (CLM) offers courses and programs that support and advance this belief, earning high praise from thousands who have attended training since its inception in 1995.

The capabilities of CLM include:

• Implementable strategies and approaches that benefit your organization
• Diverse, blended, and interactive learning environments
• Exceptional instructional quality