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OPA News Release: [06/16/2005]
Contact Name: Abrahamson or Camille Anderson
Phone Number: 202-693-4676 or x7909
Release Number: 05-1049-NAT

Labor Department Welcomes Fourth Class of MBA Fellows

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao this week welcomed the fourth class of MBA Fellows to the Department of Labor's (DOL) workforce. The sixteen business school graduates now embark on an intensive two-year training and development program designed to provide them with competencies needed for future leadership positions.

Secretary Chao, a graduate of the Harvard Business School, launched DOL's MBA Fellows program in June 2002. The program was inspired by the President's Management Agenda and is designed to attract graduates with the business and financial skills needed to make government programs more effective and efficient.

“The President places a high value on achieving a more results-oriented and efficient government and that's what the Department of Labor's MBA Fellows program is all about,” said Secretary Chao. “With the baby boom generation of federal employees approaching retirement, it is more critical than ever that we attract highly educated professionals with the management skills that can make the government work better for American taxpayers.”

The program's cornerstone is an intensive developmental program in which participants rotate among assignments in Labor Department agencies and regions nationwide. Forty-five fellows are currently in the midst of their two-year rotational assignments. The job rotations provide participants invaluable experience working on projects addressing a variety of issues including financial management, information technology, health and safety inspections and other departmental operations.

In the three years since launching the effort, DOL has increased the number of MBAs on staff from 130 to 245.

Over 250 applicants applied for the fourth class of MBA Fellows using an on-line application process. The sixteen selected applicants, representing 15 different business schools across the country, reported to the Department of Labor on June 13 to begin a one-week orientation prior to their first assignments.

Please check the DOL website at www.jobs.dol.gov for information on future classes of MBA Fellows and other job opportunities at DOL.