
The Department of Employee Training and Development (ETD) collaborates with all Divisions, Departments and Offices by designing, delivering, and evaluating high quality professional development and training in support of our system-wide goal of retaining high quality teachers, leaders and staff. We believe that learner variability is the norm, whether in school or in the workplace. Learning is the most important skill that will be needed as we work to be among the highest performing school systems in the nation. We commit to raising the bar and closing gaps, specifically in the areas of math, reading, special education and english language development to ensure that every student is prepared for the future. We also commit to preparing staff to be models of excellence in communication, customer service, innovative problem solving, mutual accountability and relationships building.
Our mission is to ensure that every adult learner will have relevant and engaging training, growth, and development opportunities and access to continuing education that supports their unique goals. We commit to building and scaling equitable, universally designed learning and training environments that develop our current and future workforce. We define workforce development as the ongoing preparation and maintenance of a skilled, talented, and motivated workforce through a coordinated investment in individual skill development and capacity building in schools, organizations, and communities (Jacobs, 2003). We believe that it is not enough to recruit and hire employees. We must ensure that we proactively design growth oriented learning environments and opportunities to meet individual needs, to reach untapped potential and to ensure that all members of Team BCPS are able to thrive in the workplace to best serve all of our students.
As we work toward this vision, ETD commits to collaborating across divisions to develop innovative practices to recruit and retain a qualified, highly effective, and diverse workforce, and create a systemwide workforce development plan to improve work performance through:
- designing and delivering online, hybrid and face to face systemic professional development opportunities aligned to our strategic plan,
- partnering with district leadership to identify staff needs that can be enhanced through mentoring, coaching, leadership development, technical and trade training, and advanced educational coursework,
- providing high quality technical training and compliance management,
- facilitating consistent onboarding and continuous induction programs for non certificated staff,
- strengthening the BCPS career ladder to support both recruitment and retention efforts;
- providing pathway opportunities for individuals interested in career advancement, change or leadership within their current role.