The Office of Personnel Management is looking for a few good managers in some new places. And maybe even a few future C-level executives.

The agency’s Presidential Management Fellows office, which usually finds candidates for its accelerated leadership and management training program in top law and public policy programs at universities and the private sector, is expanding its hunting grounds to universities with first-rate business, information technology, engineering and other curricula.

As part of the effort, PMF officials asked the federal chief executive councils—Chief Human Capital, Chief Acquisition, Chief Financial and Chief Information officers—to determine the kind of skill sets C-level government executives would like candidates for the elite management-training program to have.

"We’ll not only target business school students, but others that don’t traditionally apply for the PMF."
—Eric Brown

“We sent out a memo to the executive councils to determine what degree programs they prefer so that we can be more responsive to the needs of their agencies,” said Eric Brown, director of the PMF program office. “The needs of the government are very broad. We engaged CFOs, CHCOs, CAOs and CIOs and asked them what kind of pre-degree applicants they’d prefer to see in the PMF program. We’ll not only target business school students, but others that don’t traditionally apply for the PMF.”

Brown and other officials will have to find a way to market the PMF program to schools that aren’t familiar with it. “Some schools already tell their students to apply for the program, but we’ll have to target other schools that aren’t likely to apply,” Brown said. “Then we’ll come up with a recruiting plan, engage the CXOs to get their support and expand their message.”

The plan to attract candidates with an interest in becoming government CXOs is “a significant improvement in the program,” said Glenn Perry, director of contracts and purchasing operations at the Education Department and vice chairman of the Chief Acquisition Officers Council.

Once accepted into the program, fellows serve two years at a federal agency, where they undergo various levels of training and professional growth in their area of study and expertise. If successful, candidates win a full-time job at the agency.

Agencies are responsible for ensuring that fellows receive at least 80 hours of training each year, and they work with candidates to develop a written outline of core competencies and technical skills each fellow must gain before converting to their target position. Information about the program is available at www.pmf.opm.gov.

PMF has been developing new aspects to the training regime, including Action Learning Teams.

The teams are part of an “action-oriented, problem-solving model to engage fellows on substantive projects and to develop leadership skills,” Brown said. Each team will work on an important project or issue, culminating in a deliverable product—a report, program or strategy—that is valuable to managers and executives in the federal government.

One team, for instance, created a communications system for the Senior Executive Service, an enhanced IT system for executive mobility and a schedule for its implementation, Brown said.