National Foreign Affairs Training Center
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The George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center (NAFTC) is the U.S. government's primaring training institution for officers and support personnel of the foreign affairs community. It was previously known (and, due to the facility's rather lenghy name, is still referred to by many) as the Foreign Service Institute, or FSI, and is located in Arlington, Virginia, at what was once referred to as Arlington Hall.
FSI prepares Foreign Service Officers and other government foreign affairs professionals to advance U.S. foreign affairs interests overseas and in Washington. At the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center in Arlington, Virginia, and other locations both domestically and abroad, FSI provides more than 400 classroom courses, including some 60 foreign languages, to more than 42,000 individuals annually from the State Department and more than 40 other government agencies and the military service branches. Additionally, FSI enrolls over 5,900 State Department employees into outside training programs and provides access to several thousand commercial distance learning courses for over 2,200 State Department employees.
The Institute's programs include training for the development of Foreign and Civil Service professionals, and for Foreign Service Nationals (locally hired employees overseas) who work at U.S. Embassies around the world. Ranging in length from one day to two years, courses are designed to promote successful performance in each professional assignment, to ease the adjustment to other countries and cultures, and to enhance the leadership and management capabilities of the U.S. foreign affairs community. Other courses and services help family members prepare for the demands of a mobile lifestyle and living abroad, and provide employees and their families with important information about such critical and timely topics as emergency preparedness and cyber security awareness, among others.
