Training for the US Deptartment of State
- Commercial Tradecraft Course. BCIU delivers three one-week Commercial Tradecraft courses for junior and mid-level Foreign Service officers with commercial assignments. The course features presentations by company executives on topics such as commercial advocacy, intellectual property rights protection, market access issues, bribery and corruption, sanctions, export licensing, financing, and investment policy.
- Political/Economic Tradecraft Course - Commercial Diplomacy Module. BCIU leads a commercial advocacy module featuring a presentation and case studies for Foreign Service Officers who are beginning their first tour as Embassy Political/Economic Officers. BCIU delivers eight to ten sessions per year.
- Economic Issues Course. BCIU and member executives deliver a 3-hour module on major aspects of Commercial Diplomacy such as advocacy, dispute resolution and trade and investment facilitation as part of a three-week course for mid-level Foreign Service Officers.
- Power Generation Seminar. BCIU offers a one-day seminar for audiences of Foreign Service Officers and Commercial Officers posted in, or assigned to, emerging power markets, utilizing industry executives as faculty. Training has taken place at the Foreign Service Institute as well as in Milan, Italy; and Lima, Peru.
- U.S. Department of State Desk Officers Training. BCIU designs Desk Officer Commercial Orientation Program for newly-assigned State Department desk officers to familiarize them with pertinent commercial issues and needs of the U.S. business community working internationally. The training is conducted in collaboration with the Commercial and Business Affairs Office in the Economic Bureau and with the Regional Bureaus at State. Executives from BCIU member companies brief desk officers on the needs and activities of U.S. business in their specific areas of regional responsibility. An important aspect of these briefings is the opportunity for State officers to learn private sector perspectives on political challenges worldwide. Recent deliveries of training included briefings for the Western Hemisphere Affairs desk officers on the implications of populism in Latin America for U.S. business interests and for the North Central European Affairs Office economic and political officers on energy security in Europe. All training takes place at the State Department.
- U.S. Department of State Economic Officers Training. BCIU designs training on commercial diplomacy for the State Department economic officers posted at U.S. Embassies worldwide. These training sessions target heads of economic sections in Embassies for the six regional Bureaus in the State Department and are conducted in conjunction with each Bureau's regional conferences. BCIU business executives with regional interests that match the audience serve as speakers in sessions on a variety of commercial and policy advocacy topics. The most recent delivery of training was as a part of the Western Hemisphere Affairs regional conference for economic officers in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- U.S. Department of State - BCIU Corporate Practicum Program. The Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, organizes a Corporate Practicum program that places mid-career Foreign Service Officers (FSOs) in short-term assignments (4-6 weeks) in the private sector. The goal of this program is to expose the FSOs to international business issues on which companies seek U.S. Government assistance and to corporate leadership and management techniques that will benefit them and the Department of State as program participants advance in their careers. This practicum serves as an elective capstone to the U.S. Department of State's intensive nine-month professional development course in Economic and Commercial Studies. This course is roughly equivalent to a master's degree in economics and includes coursework in mathematics, microeconomics, macroeconomics, statistics, international trade theory and commercial policy, international finance, money and banking, country data analysis, economic policy reform, international capital markets and public finance, as well as applied coursework on such topics as trade dispute resolution, competition policy, trade agreement implementation, environmental economics, and project finance analysis.