Skills can be acquired through training, mentoring, brokering, contracting, or outsourcing. You can send staff to training centers, or have the instructor come to you and provide a more customized lesson to a whole group. Hardware and software vendors usually offer training and technical assistance for their products be sure you include these features in your contracts with them. Participants can complete the lessons on their own computers and at their own pace. When staff acquire a new skill this way, an experienced mentor can make an important difference.
Mentors transmit the often tacit contextual knowledge that goes along with a particular skill.
Use their expertise to supplement what already exists in your agency. Let them do the work that you can t, but add contractor management to the list of skills you need to have in-house. Small agencies can be assisted by larger ones with more diverse skills and resources. Agencies can share vacant training slots, lend expertise, and form peer review groups to help one another with unusual or risky tasks. The new method links investment decisions to agency goals and dollars.