Graduate School, USDA Partners with ESI to Offer Project Management and Information Technology Project Management Courses

6/5/2002

From: Kathleen Butler of ESI International, 703-558-3000

ARLINGTON, Va., June 5 -- ESI International, the leading provider of project management and contract management training services, has signed a Master Training Agreement with The Graduate School, USDA to provide on-site project management training to the school's government client base.

The agreement between ESI and the Graduate School, USDA, a premier learning institution for high-quality professional and continuing education, development and training, allows the Graduate School to offer its students professional certification in the fields of project management and information technology project management.

"ESI has more than 20 years of experience training public- and private-sector professionals in both project management and contract management," says Larry Seeley, ESI president. "The Graduate School's decision to choose ESI as its training partner highlights our excellent reputation in the public sector as a training provider and offers government organizations an easy way to purchase our project management courses."

This training agreement gives government agencies another procurement vehicle to ESI's on-site training programs.

Through the Graduate School's existing inter-agency agreements, groups of 15 or more public-sector employees can now quickly schedule any of ESI's on-site project management or information technology project management courses since ESI's programs are covered under general training contracts already in place.

"We received requests from our government clients to offer a complete curriculum on project management that would culminate in an industry-recognized certificate," says Gary Dzurec, senior program manager of the Graduate School, USDA. "After one of our major clients specifically requested ESI, we conducted extensive research of other training organizations that might meet our needs. After careful review, we are convinced that ESI is the premier project management training company."

After completing a specified course of study, participants may earn a Master's Certificate in Project Management or Information Technology Project Management. The master's certificates are awarded by ESI's academic partner, The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

ESI International is the leading provider of project and contract management training and consulting services. Since 1981, ESI has served Fortune Global 500 companies and nearly every major agency of the U.S. government. ESI blends training and consulting services to give clients complete, integrated solutions tailored to their organizations.

To date, the ESI Professional Development Programs have benefited more than 540,000 people in 100 countries. For more information on ESI's training programs, visit the company's Web site at http://www.esi-intl.com.

A pioneer in continuing education, the Graduate School, USDA offers career-related courses, primarily to federal, state and local employees, for job enhancement and personal enrichment.

The School annually enrolls 180,000 students in more than 1500 courses, which are available in many convenient formats -- day, evening and weekend classes, residential training programs and correspondence, self-study and online courses. Since its founding in 1921, the school has helped more than two million people meet their continuing education objectives.

Information about the Graduate School, USDA is available at http://www.grad.usda.gov.