Housed at the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center, FSI trains Department of State and other U.S. Government agency employees involved in foreign affairs and encourages research and other studies of new and developing areas of foreign policy concerns. FSI develops training materials for total curriculum including video and multimedia-based training courses. A critical function of FSI is to provide intensive instruction in over 60 languages, for Foreign Service Officers and other government employees assigned overseas. FSI also offers a variety of area studies courses that familiarize Foreign Service personnel with the specific geographic/cultural area to which they are assigned. The Institute also assists personnel and their families going to, or returning from, overseas assignments in cross- cultural and lifestyle adaptation, in addition to family and work adjustment/readjustment.

  • Leadership and Management School (FSI/LMS): The Leadership and Management School offers mandatory and elective leadership and management training for supervisors and managers from entry to executive levels, roundtables and policy seminars for senior leaders, and crisis management training overseas and at the Shultz Center. LMS oversees the Leadership and Managing Training Continuum to ensure participation by Foreign Service and Civil Service employees and works with bureaus and overseas missions to improve organizational effectiveness and crisis management.
  • Office of Public Affairs (FSI/OPA): The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Office of Public Affairs is a fast-paced, creative and collaborative office that offers an internship experience providing insight into public diplomacy, diplomatic training and foreign affairs. The office manages FSI’s Congressional Affairs and media relations, oversees the bureau’s social media and public-facing digital engagement, and spearheads a number of programmatic campaigns and initiatives such as the Heroes of U.S. Diplomacy initiative. For additional background on our work, intern applicants can refer to www.state.gov/fsi and follow links to our social media channels.
  • School of Applied Information Technology (FSI/SAIT): The School of Applied Information Technology provides training for the Department of State’s IT workforce, end-user training and IRM Tradecraft training for all levels at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI). In addition, SAIT provides training to users from other federal agencies and contractor employees on a reimbursement basis.
  • School of Language Studies (FSI/SLS): The School of Language Studies helps students enhance their language learning skills as an aid in their FSI studies and as a foundation for advancing their learning while at post. In this office, Foreign Service Officers study over 70 languages split into different areas: East Asian and Pacific languages (EAP), European and African languages (EUA), Near East, Central, and South Asian languages (NEA), Romance languages (ROM), Slavic, Pashto, and Persian languages (SPP).
  • School of Professional and Area Studies (FSI/SPAS): The School of Professional and Area Studies (SPAS) provides tradecraft, orientation, and area studies training for State Department employees, as well as employees from other U.S. government agencies. SPAS training prepares the full range of foreign affairs professionals to successfully advance U.S. government foreign policy goals and objectives by providing world class orientation and area studies training to the broadest possible community of Foreign and Civil Service professionals, as well as appropriate professional tradecraft training across all relevant fields. SPAS works with strategic partners across the Department of State, the U.S. government, and the academic and private sectors to continually deliver the highest quality training utilizing the latest knowledge about adult professional learning. SPAS provides hundreds of professional courses to all categories of Department personnel in a wide range of topics, namely, Orientation, Area Studies, Management, Consular, Public Diplomacy, Political, Economic/Commercial, and Office Management.
  • Transition Center (FSI/TC): The Transition Center (FSI/TC) helps prepare employees and their family members for effectiveness in the foreign affairs community transitions throughout, and after, their careers. It is comprised of the Training Division (TC/T), the Overseas Briefing Center (OBC), and the Career Transition Center (CTC).