All employee-owners at Technomics have an array of opportunities to continue growing their knowledge and developing their skill set beyond their everyday client work. Company trainings, knowledge sharing events, and online classes pave the way for success, but Technomics takes it one step further offering forums, mentorship programs, physical and virtual workspaces for open collaboration, study groups, and much more to further both hard and soft skills.

Below is a glimpse at some of the opportunities Technomics provides:

  • TTI (Technomics Training Institute)/ Foundations of Cost Analysis (FCA)
  • Technomics Business Development (TBD) Club
  • CEO/CFO-hosted Future Leaders Forum
    • Senior Practitioners’ Forum
  • Learn-at-Lunch (L@L)/Learn-at-Breakfast (L@B)
  • Technical Brown-Bags
  • International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association (ICEAA) Training
    • Intensive Prep Groups
    • Peer Buddy Study Group
  • Integrated Warfare Systems (IWS) 101 Trainings
  • Defense Acquisition University (DAU) courses
  • edX courses
  • WebEx spaces
  • Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Symposium
  • MORS Cost Community of Practice (CoP)
  • Soft Skills Curriculum
  • Technomics Innovation Lab
  • Peer Buddy Program

Let’s look a little more in depth at what is offered.

Technomics focuses on building personal and professional skill sets that employee-owners use to elevate their knowledge and help Technomics grow its reputation for delivering increasing value to its clients.  By offering a variety of in-person opportunities, Technomics is able to foster a collaborative learning environment where employee-owners are able to learn faster, develop new ideas quicker, and grow both soft and technical skills. The Technomics Training Institute (TTI) is a great example of an all-encompassing learning opportunity for employee-owners that is held biweekly and in-person. These sessions have been designed to help analysts of all levels develop or improve their skills related to cost estimating, data analysis, statistics, and risk analysis. Each session includes interactive activities and real-life examples to engage employee-owners throughout the course.

A second in-person opportunity that Technomics offers, which is currently in its third season of sessions, is the Technomics Business Development (TBD). Sessions are held once a month and cover an extensive range of topics related to Business Development. These sessions are special to Technomics, as it is not proposal or negotiation training that is typically referred to by many companies as business development, these sessions are led by our CEO, Al Leung, who teaches eager employee-owners the unique ways of Technomics’ business development.  These sessions encourage inter-department socializing amongst the cohort.

Additional CEO-involved opportunities at Technomics are the CEO/CFO-hosted Future Leaders Forums, where all employee-owners can come together and collaborate on pervasive issues and new initiatives for continuous improvement at Technomics. These forums demonstrate the influence that employee-owners have at making a difference in their careers and reinforces the company's commitment to fostering a culture that motivates, retains, and attracts top talent. These forums also cultivate a learning environment with regards to public speaking, idea generation, and execution. The Senior Practitioner’s Forum follows the same open-conversation structure as the Future Leaders Forums, but is reserved for more senior level employee-owners to ensure every employee-owner has the same opportunities to share their ideas.

Learn-at-lunch (L@L)/Learn-at-breakfast (L@B) are also opportunities at Technomics that are open to all employee-owners and designed to help develop greater usable awareness of what other employee-owners are achieving. Typical L@Ls and L@Bs can be project overviews, capabilities or offerings overviews, research presentations, career progression experiences, or other (HR, finance, operations) related topics. Additionally, Technomics offers Technical Brown Bags, which focus on providing an overview and use case of a technical skill used at Technomics that has the ability to be utilized on another project, or to help other employee-owners grow their technical skill set. 

In addition to in-person learning opportunities, Technomics also offers a hybrid of in-person and online learning opportunities, both within the cost community and outside. ICEAA, a more cost-focused learning opportunity, offers two exams, the Certified Cost Estimator/Analyst (CCEA) & Professional Cost Estimator/Analyst (PCEA). The CCEA exam is ICEAA’s primary professional certification, and it requires 5 years of relevant cost-related experience to qualify. The PCEA certification is intended for those new to cost-related professions and requires two years of experience in cost, budgeting, finance, accounting, or other related fields to qualify.  Technomics offers two educational opportunities to help prepare employee-owners for the exam. The first is a three part intensive prep that is open to all who have begun studying for the exam and want extra help, practice problems, or just wish to practice in a group setting. The second is a weekly peer buddy study group that is open to everyone who is interested in learning more about cost estimation techniques and methodologies. Each member takes a turn learning a specific Cost Estimating Body of Knowledge (CEBok) topic and then teaches that topic to the group. The aim is to have in-depth conversations and a thorough understanding of the presented CEBoK topic after each session. Cost Estimating Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are also in usual attendance to provide additional clarification on some of the more difficult topics.

Another cost-focused and technical learning opportunity Technomics offers is the IWS 101 Training curriculum. This curriculum offers 14 cost estimating and technical modules dedicated to teaching the key elements and building blocks of a Life Cycle Cost Estimate (LCCE) for Navy programs.

Technomics supports many educational ventures. Employee-owners are encouraged to take part in Defense Acquisition University (DAU) courses and are given access to the online education platform, edX, with over 2500 courses in their catalog ranging in courses from program management, coding basics, and advance techniques in multiple coding languages, and cost estimating and analysis. Technomics’ WebEx spaces also allow employee-owners to join spaces of interest and ask their peers questions regarding specific technical or professional topics.

In addition, all employee-owners have access to the Think HR catalog with over 200 courses on a variety of subjects including soft skills and professional development.

Recently, Technomics premiered the Technomics Professional Excellence Standards (TPES) Onboarding Video. This video will be shown to all employee-owners and new hires, which demonstrates the professional standards Technomics upholds and the soft skills that are important in the workplace.

An annual learning opportunity that Technomics participates in outside of the office is the MORS Symposium. This event is an opportunity for the national security community to exchange information, examine research, and discuss critical national security topics. The MORS Cost Community of Practice also offers a forum for open communication and for participants to collaborate on cost-analysis related topics.

To enable employee-owners to continuously learn and grow, Technomics offers the TIL, or the Technomics Innovation Lab, which is a physical space inside the Arlington, VA office that encourages employee-owners to meet and collaborate in an open and creative space.

Lastly, Technomics also offers a Peer Buddy Program for new hires where an experienced employee-owner is always available to answer any question.  This program is extremely helpful for new hires to learn about all of the opportunities there are at the company to begin their continuous learning journey.

In addition to the growing list of opportunities, Technomics is always looking to improve on ways to keep its employee-owners committed to lifelong learning!

 

 

References:

[www.iceaaonline.com/certificationfaq/]