[Mark Keenan:] So welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us today, for an information session on pathways, which is the pilot of GAO's virtual International Auditor Fellowship Program. I'm delighted to have everyone here today. My name is Mark Keenan, and I'm the Program Manager for the Fellows Program. And I'd like to make a few introductions. I'm joined today by my colleagues, Brenda Fernandez, who is our Program Analyst, Paul Miller, our International Visitor's Coordinator, Brody Garner, our Protocol Officer, and Aubrey Anderson, our Program Intern. And all the Pathways staff are part of the International Relations Team, at GAO's Strategic Planning and External Liaison. And I know my fellow colleagues put on their cameras, so you could see them. So, we are all delighted to have you join us today for this session. Today's session will last one hour, and we plan to devote the first half to providing an overview of Pathways, and then the second half will be opened up to your questions. If you haven't already done so, I see some people have, if you wouldn't mind, presenting yourself in the chat with your name and the SAI that you are from, for example, mine says Mark Keenan, US GAO, just to give a sense of where everyone is coming from? That would be great. During this session, we ask that you please keep your video and audio turned off, and then when we get to the question and answer portion of the presentation, if you'd like to ask a question, please either use the raised hand function or submit your question using a chat feature, and if you use the raised hand feature, if you could just wait, and then we will call on you and then you can activate your audio and video to ask your question. And so we are very glad that we could open this up, especially to members of the OLACEFS region, and be able to provide you this information and answer your questions. If we--if a question comes up later, after our session today, we are always happy to answer any questions you might have, so please feel free to email us at the email address that is the IAFPcurriculum@GAO.gov, and we will be sure to get back to you, and I think we will have that email address up again, later on, so you can get it, make sure to get it, and we can also get it on our website. So without further adieu, for the first portion here, I'm going to start by providing some background on the traditional program, our fellowship program, and how we arrived at the Pathways pilot program, and provide a description of the program. And then Brenda is going to come in and talk about the curriculum a bit, the strategy paper, which is a Capstone project for the program, and the GAO mentor component, as well as the SAI sponsor component. And then, finally, Aubrey will discuss the application process and technical requirements, and then I will come back and we can field your questions. So with that out of the way, I want to start with some background, if we could get to the next slide? Excellent, thank you. So for by way of background, I just want to provide a little bit of information about the traditional program, the international auditor fellowship program. Again, we typically refer to it as the Fellows program, and I know many of you probably are familiar with it, or may have had colleagues who actually participated in it. Sort of what the status of the program the last few years, and then our idea of this virtual pilot. So, we'll get to that. So, starting with the fellowship program, so this is a longstanding program at GAO. We initiated it back in 1979, actually, in response to our increased federal government expenditures abroad, and related need to strengthen the accountability systems over these funds. So the program has been designed to strengthen the ability of SAI's to fulfill their missions, and enhance accountability in governments worldwide. The in-person program is four months, where fellows travel to the United States, they live in Washington, D.C., and they participate in the program at the GAO Headquarters building, as well as trips around Washington and other places. There's really three components to it. One is learning about GAO and auditing, and in particular, performance auditing. The second is learning what we call "soft skills," which are things like, you know, providing effective feedback, leading effective teams, and change management. Then the third component is cultural exchange. So, overall, our fellows explored a variety of audit techniques and approaches, and again, the emphasis is on skills required to conduct a performance audit, and we know that many of our colleagues overseas still do the primarily financial auditing, but the focus of this program is much more on performance auditing, and how to conduct those. So we are extremely proud of our program. We have over 610 graduates from 106 countries, and we are actually working on an alumni program to tap into that incredible resource of people out there, that have gone through our program. Many of our graduates have risen to leadership at their SAI, or their government, including we've had auditors general, deputy auditors general, and government ministers, who are alumni of our program. Participants are nominated by the head of their SAI and the expectation that they'll transfer knowledge and skills gained to their organization when they return home. Our program has a requirement that the fellows complete a capstone project in forming the strategy paper, and that is used to implement change and transfer knowledge to their respective SAI. So, as we all know, the world changed in March of 2020, when everything sort of shut down. We, like everyone else, had to cancel many things, including our Fellowship program, so we canceled it in 2020, and we canceled it again, in 2021, due to the ongoing health concerns. So here we are in 2022, our Comptroller General and leadership decided they did not want to go yet a third year without a program, but also that they would want to have it done virtually, for continued health and safety reasons. So that is why we decided to pilot the virtual program in 2022. Again, we are calling that program Pathways. So if we could go to the next slide? Okay, so my final slide here, then I want to hand it to Brenda, but I want to cover some basic components of Pathways, explain sort of the duration of the program, the focus, in terms of geographics, the sort of schedule, Mondays through Friday schedule, and then information about cost and travel. So, Pathways is a five-week program, so versus the regular four months, we're condensing it to five weeks. It is going to run from June 6th to July 8th, 2022, and then Fellows will return in September of 2022, to present their strategy papers, and more will be explained about that later in the presentation. So because this is a pilot, and the time zone considerations among many other logistical challenges, as you can imagine, we are opening this up, and focusing it solely on the SAIs in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the thought that if it does go well, we may be able to roll it out to other regions. We plan to choose somewhere around 8 to 15 Fellows. And it's just a bit smaller group than we normally have, but this is, again, because this is a pilot program, we want to build group cohesion, and this is the best number that is going to be supported by our learning center and our instructing staff, so there are a number of reasons that go into that, but that's to let you know how many people we plan to take. The program will run all day, Monday till Friday. So that's roughly from 9:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, with the following caveats. So, Mondays and Fridays will not have any synchronous training, meaning no live instruction on those days, but rather, we're setting that aside for asynchronous training, so videos, those things that are already prepared, that you will go and view, and discuss later. And some cultural events, as well as time to connect with GAO mentors and others. In addition to this, the third week of our program, so right in the middle of the program, we will also similarly not have any synchronous training that week. Okay? So that entire week will be asynchronous training, cultural activities, and it will be time for our Fellows to work on our strategy papers, and meet with their mentors, as well as we will have some things like program office hours, where we will be available to set aside specific times that the program staff will be available to answer, and questions, and provide any assistance the fellows might need. We know this is a big commitment. It is a five weeks that we're asking for, and we are asking that fellows be expected to fully participate during the five-week period and so realizing that you--if you're in our program, it's likely that you're obviously in your home country and may perhaps actually be working out of your office with your colleagues. There may be an expectation there that you, as a fellow, would think still also continue your daily workload. And this is why we're asking the SAI heads to fully commit the fellows to this five-week period in our application. And this is also the reason we are asking the SAI head to assign each Fellow a SAI sponsor, and Brenda will explain that SAI sponsor component in just a couple of minutes. So as I mentioned, this is a condensed version of the end person program. It will have audit courses. It will have soft skills, and it will have cultural activities. So all the things the normal program has, but in a shorter form. We know that the--it's going to be more difficult to build connections, and that's one of the greatest things about our program, is when our Fellows come here in person. They build a camaraderie and connection to the other Fellows in the program. And we're also aware that there is going to be significant Zoom fatigue, as we've all been on Zoom meetings and teams and whatever platform you may have been on, and that gets very tiring for everyone involved. So in response to those two things, we plan to have a lot of fun activities to build connections, and we also intend to put in a lot of breaks to give people time to get up, to stretch, to eat, and to attend to their well-being. So we are doing our very best to make sure you have that built-in to the schedule. I finally want to emphasize, there is no tuition for this program. No tuition cost. And then also just to underscore, this is 100% virtual, so there is no travel to the United States for this program. Hopefully we can get back there in 2023, and get back to the in-person experience. So with that, I would now like to hand it over to my colleague, Brenda Fernandez, to provide more specifics on the curriculum, the strategy paper, and the SAI sponsor. Brenda, if you want to take it from there? 

[Brenda Fernandez:] Thank you, Mark. I think everyone can hear me clearly? So I know that an area that everyone, and many, are curious about is the curriculum for our program. So, the courses that are taught in our program actually fall in three areas. One being the audit courses. We have the soft skills, and then the culture exchange. So courses that fall within the audit realm, the audit area, would be courses like the logic of engagement planning. We have applied ratings scales, project management, which is an important area of auditing, drafting reports, and effective recommend--writing effective recommendations will also have GAO staff from across the agency actually come in to talk about their work. That's part of their audit courses. For soft skills, courses that fall within that area would be Briefing Skills, Change Management--in essence, the courses that cover topics, that cover topics that fall within their leadership areas. Also we will have culture exchange. So, for the culture exchange, this is where we will have GAO volunteers serve as cross-cultural coordinators, and they will be able to host a few educational and fun events, where we can all participate in, and then fellows will also have an opportunity to share more about their country and their culture. And we were planning also not just for the fellows to be the ones sharing, the program staff will also be sharing. So this will be a good educational and fun event for everyone. A requirement for participants of the program is that they have to complete a capstone strategy paper to improve some aspect of their SAI. So, we do not assign the topic for the strategy paper. This is something that is agreed upon by your SAI leadership. So, during the program, meaning from June 6 to July 8, the fellows will be matched with a GAO mentor who is an expert on the topic to help the fellow develop that strategy paper. And then, from July 8 to September 8, the fellows will be expected to continue to work with their GAO mentor to complete that strategy paper. They will be able to present their strategy paper during a virtual forum that we'll schedule in September. Regarding the SAI sponsor--so this should be a senior leader assigned by the SAI head. That is, outside of the fellows, the immediate work team, and that is able to provide support to the fellow. That person needs to be able to ensure that the fellow is fully able to participate in the program, and to also help implement that strategy paper after the program. As a suggestion, just for everyone, an IAFP alumni would be a great person for this role. If you want to know who the IAFP alumni are, from your program, you can email us and we'll let you know who they are, so that way you can reach out to them, and know more about the program also. So, for the SAI sponsors, we'll actually meet with all of them as a group in advance of the program, so that way we are able to explain in more detail their role, and answer any questions that they may have regarding the program. So with that, that's all I have to cover right now. I'm going to hand it over to Aubrey, and she is going to cover the application process, and technical requirements among other things. Aubrey, the stage is yours. 

[Aubrey Anderson:] Thank you, Brenda [clears throat], excuse me, good morning everyone from New Mexico in the United States. So the most important thing you need to know about the application is that they are due in two weeks. The deadline for applications is March 1st, so again, that's in two weeks. And if you need a quick checklist as you are putting together your application packet, there should be four pieces--the completed application, that you can find on the website, the resume, or CV of the applicant, the English proficiency tests, if those are applicable, as well as the Capstone proposal. So, making sure that all of those pieces are in your application when you send us the email. And the application is split into two parts. The first part is specifically for the applicant, and it includes your history and your Capstone, and then part two is to be completed by the SAI head. It has a nomination letter, as well as the name for that SAI sponsor that Brenda talked about. As you are possibly wondering, the SAI head is only able to submit one nomination to GAO. Now, that doesn't mean that only one person needs to put together an application. There are SAIs who have internal--internal interviews, and application process to determine who the best applicant is, to send to GAO for consideration. As you're filling out section one, it should be clear that the applicant is a mid- to senior level auditor, in their career. We give the benchmark of about three years at the SAI, so that they have seen a lot of the audits and are familiar with not only the processes of their home SAI, but also of the needs. So that that strategy paper can be a well-considered topic in something that the SAI-head would be proud to champion as a point of change. And if beyond the general three years in the SAI benchmark that we provide, we leave it up to the head of the SAI, because we believe that they are in a better position to decide whether someone is a good fit or not. And so you'll have to have that conversation if need be. This program will all be conducted in English, and so you'll need to have either the TOEFL scores of a 550 or better on internet, or 80 or better on the written, so that you can participate and get the most from this program. The classes that we talked about, whether it be the soft skills and leadership courses, or the specific audits courses, those, the reason we target the mid- to senior-level employees, is that we want to expand capacity for these SAIs, and if you're generally too early in your career, you aren't quite familiar enough with the language and the process of an audit, whereas, if you're later in your career, you're not concerned with so many of the questions that we'll be providing information for. And again, the application is due by March 1st, and so for technology requirements, before I list these, they are, all of this information is on the application, including the tech requirements. But I want to state the note that if you find that you aren't able to meet the tech requirements, you know, perhaps you're lacking a camcorder, or a webcam, or you know, your microphone, please reach out to us and let us know. We don't want a technology constraint to be the limiting factor, and to keep people from participating in the program. So again, reach out if you have technology constraints, and we'll do our best to work with you and find partners to enable you to participate. So the technical requirements are you do need to have a desktop or a laptop, and we recommend it be 14 inches. You are going to be possibly managing two different screens at the same time, as you go through conversations and coursework. And so it needs to be a laptop--or excuse me, it needs to be 14 inches, or about 36 cm, just so that you have that room. And you also need to have a USB plug-in, speakers, a microphone, and a webcam, so that you can participate. And above-all, you do need to have a reliable connection. As we know, Zoom is the new way of doing this, and we recommend that its broadband wired, or wireless internet, and that you have a download speed of 2 to 3 megabits per second, or mbps. And finally, the last thing that we recommend having is a separate phone, because Zoom doesn't always work, and we want you to be able to participate as much as you can. So have a phone that is also going to be able to at least get you into the audio of the meeting, if your internet is having trouble that day. So with that, I'll state my last reminder that you have two weeks to get these applications together and submitted to us, and that will be to the email address iafpcurriculum@gao.gov, and I will turn the time back over to Mark, so that we can turn the time to you all, and hear your questions. 

[Mark Keenan:] Excellent, thank you Brenda, and Aubrey. I appreciate your presentations. And Brenda, I'd say, if you could go back up one slide, I want to leave that one on there that has the email address. So this concludes the overview part of the program, and now, we want to open it up to any of you who have questions. And that is the important part of today. So again, if you do have a question, feel free to either use the raised hand function, or wait for me, or wait for me to call on you, or you could use the Zoom chat feature, and submit your question that way. We are going to do our best to answer all of the questions today. If we do not get to your question for some reason, we will update our frequently asked questions document on our internet page, so you can also check there for more details. And of course, always, emailing us is a great way to get hold of us. So with that, let me see if we have any questions that have come in, and I'll ask my colleagues, Brenda and Aubrey, to let me know if they're seeing anything either in the chat or the raised hands. I am going to scroll through. So what I like to do as well, I know, maybe you're trying to think of your question? We just gave you a lot of information in a short period of time, and I know that's a lot to absorb. And so let me start this with maybe a couple of--a question that we do get frequently. And it actually goes back to what--I think it's important to talk about what Aubrey just talked about, which is looking at the mid- to senior-level people. So we get the question, the application specifies that fellows should be mid- to senior-level professionals, and can you better define what that means? And so again, this is generally this program is geared towards professionals with a fair amount of auditing experience, so it is less geared towards people brand new to the SAI, or alternatively, not so much geared toward people at the highest leadership level of the SAI. So as Aubrey mentioned, we give sort of a baseline of you should have about three years kind of at a minimum, but we really, with that being said, we really do leave it up to the head of the SAI, they know that the staff better than anyone, and who might be the best to fit into this role. So we really try to defer to them in terms of the candidate that they determine is best to nominate. So let me see if we're getting any questions, and I do have a raised hand. So I'm going to call on one individual, Karen, if you want to turn on your--[inaudible]--

[Karen:] Thank you very much, can you hear me? 

[Mark Keenan:] I can, yes. Thank you.

[Karen:] Do we need to have the topic right now for this strategy paper? Or during the course? 

[Mark Keenan:] Yeah, okay good, thank you Karen. Good question. The question again was, do you need to have the strategy paper topic now, or can you wait until the program starts? And the answer to that is you're going to need to get a strategy paper topic now, because that is going to be part of your application, and the head of the SAI is going to need to approve that. You're going to have to work with them to approve that topic. So it's not something you can wait on until you come, and in fact, prior to even starting the program, we're going to probably have the fellows submit a little bit more detail, like an outline of their strategy paper on, in advance of the program. So again, you'll have to have the topic as part of the application process, and as we said, the applications are going to be due on March 1, so it's something you'll need to do now. So, hopefully that answers your question, Karen?

[Karen:] It does, thank you. 

[Mark Keenan:] Okay, you're welcome. And then I see a couple of questions here about the TOEFL score? And one of them is explaining about the TOEFL score, and another one is about how old it can be? So, I can take part of that, and then I may ask my colleagues to cover part of it, as well. So in terms of the--how old it can be, we generally go back, TOEFL has their scores go back two years to be legitimate. And that's how long they observe the scores for. But because this is a pilot program, and that's normally what we do--we go back two years. But because this is a pilot program, and we realize the time frames here are kind of short, and the fact that we are going to be interviewing all the candidates, as well, and that will cover English proficiency, we are willing to go back a little bit further than that, upwards to going back say four or five years. So if you have a specific TOEFL score you want to submit to us, we could take a look at it, and make sure it's okay before you proceed. We'd be happy to take a look at that. So, hopefully that explains how old the score can be. In terms of explaining just the overall TOEFL requirements, I can't remember Brenda or Aubrey, if you had that, if you went over that before, maybe you could just repeat the requirements for TOEFL, the scores? 

[Brenda Fernandez:] I want to say it was me. Aubrey, please let me know if I'm jumping over you, please, but I believe it is 80. It is 80, for the internet-based TOEFL test. There are, we are accepting also alternates to them, so if you took an alternate English test, please let us know what it is, and we'll let you know if it is accepted or not. But the score right now that we're looking for, to be able to participate in the program is 80. Having said that, please let us know if you're having any problems also signing up to take the test or anything like that. Or any question you may have about the TOEFL score, if you're--I'm not sure exactly how they're, they're doing with this pandemic, but I have heard of some challenges, and some slow responses, in the coordinators for the TOEFL test, so please let us know if there's any challenges for you trying to get that through, because we will want to make sure that everyone has the opportunity. 

[Aubrey Anderson:] Oh, Mark? 

[Mark Keenan:] Yes? 

[Aubrey Anderson:] To answer Claudia's second question about whether we accept IELTS, just reiterating what Mark said, in that--[background voices], can we have everyone mute? Have a little bit of background noise. So as far as the IELTS score go, if that's the score that you have available, send that to us, and we'll review and let you know whether it's accepted [background voices continue], so we'll do an as-test basis, if you have a score other than TOEFL. Back to you, Mark. 

[Mark Keenan:] That's great, thanks Aubrey. Good clarification, yes. We--yeah, exactly what Aubrey said. So I want to turn, we've got a couple of hands raised, let me turn it over to Alejandra, if you want to ask your question?

[Alejandra:] Hi, hello, greetings from Chile! 

[Mark Keenan:] Hello, welcome!

[Alejandra:] Yeah, I have a couple of questions, the first one is, is there any guidelines to choose the strategic topic, something that, in order that we could choose it properly, or a topic that is relevant? And the second question is are the fellows going to receive any certification after the course completion? 

[Mark Keenan:] Great, thank you Alejandra. Those are great questions. And the, in terms of, so your first question was, are there any guidelines for choosing this strategy paper topic? And yes, our application has information, a little bit of information about the topics that have been chosen in the past, things like strategic planning, auditing for waste, fraud, and abuse, developing effective recommendations, and those types of things. So there is, if you look at the application, and the portion on the strategy paper, we give some examples of those topics, and as well, on the very end, at the very end of the application, where we talk about our course overview, we can also kind of tie some of the course topics and things like the names of the courses to potential areas you may want to think of a strategy paper. But we really--so we do give some ideas, and we would be happy to post more if that's helpful, but I think you could start there and reach out if you have further questions about how to choose a strategy paper topic. In terms of your second question on certification, yes, we do plan to provide a certification on completion of the program, as we do with our in-person program, we're going to do for this virtual program. So we'll do that. As we said before, the program is going to run for five weeks, and then we're going to have this sort of two-month period afterwards where the fellow will go back to the regular work, but they'll continue with the strategy paper and working with the GAO mentor, so in around the September time frame, we will do the final presentation of those strategy papers, and that's, at that point, we'll do a graduation ceremony and provide a certificate. So hopefully that answered your questions. I will--

[Alejandra:] Thank you, thank you. 

[Mark Keenan:] Oh, you're welcome! You're welcome, and let me turn it to Andres, who had his hand up as well?

[Andres:] Hi everyone. I would like to introduce myself. My name is Andres, I have been working Corte de Cuentas de El Salvador since 10 years ago. I am majoring in accounting. We have pleasure to share this program with you. So I have one question. When are you going to send the link to enroll in this program or course? When are you going to send that link? To enroll? 

[Mark Keenan:] Thank you, Andres. And welcome. It's very nice to have you join us. In terms of the link to join the program, so we already have, on our website, if you go to the, if you just go to search, on the internet, GAO IAFP, it will take you to our web page, which has the information and the application. You simply work with your SAI leadership on the application. Make sure that the SAI head is going to nominate you. And then you can fill it out and submit it, using the email address there. And I see also that Aubrey has posted the link in the chat, so you can get it right from there. Again, if you click on there, it gives a brief explanation of Pathways, and then it gives the application, frequently asked--and frequently asked questions. So hopefully everything will be there for you to put it forward, and put forward your application.

[Andres:] Thank you so much. 

[Mark Keenan:] You're welcome. I am looking here at the chat, and I see a question here from Dr. Lopez. What happens if the participant does not have a VISA. So again, this is a completely virtual program. So there will be no travel to the United States. And so no VISA will be necessary for this program. So you will not need to worry about any of that. Okay. Very good questions. I appreciate, we appreciate them. And I am looking to see if I can find any more raised hands. Which I do not see. Okay. I think I just got one in here. Okay, excuse me. Edgar just wrote in, when will we start the formal application process? So right now, we are open to taking your applications, and they are due by--you must turn it in my March 1st, to be considered for the program. So you've got a few weeks left, to join. I'm sorry, to apply. But everything, the--our plan then is, the application deadline closes on March 1st. We will then review all of the applications. We will conduct, if needed, interviews for English proficiency, and then we will notify--our plan is to notify those selected for the program by April 1st, so that is the timeline. You're very welcome. Okay. Well, let me turn back to, while we wait, to see if others have more questions, another one that comes in frequently is what if I do not have the required technology? I think Aubrey covered this well in her section, but it's worth revisiting, hopefully. So in terms of technology, the requirements are in the application for the things that you need to have to be successful in this program, to be able to join successfully. So we encourage all of those who are interested and meet the program requirements to apply, regardless of whether you have the technology to do so. But in the application, where you reach out in advance, if you would like, we ask that you describe any technology challenges that you may face, and we, as the program staff, will do our best to work with you to address the challenges and see if we can have you as part of the program. So there are some options we may have to help with that. So please, just, if we don't know, we won't be able to help. So if you could reach out about that, we will work with you. Okay and then, Berta, looks like a question came in, about only if, well how many basically can you, can the SAI nominate to be in our program? So to be very clear about that, we--they are asking the SAI heads nominate one individual for this program. Under our normal program, the end person, we do allow two people, but because this is a pilot, and other constraints I mentioned before, about building cohesion, being able to handle technology issues and so forth, but keeping it as a very small group of 8 to 15 people, so with that, we, to keep it reasonable here, we're asking just up to one person from each SAI, within your SAI, I know that we've heard from some SAIs that have had several people put forward their application, and the SAI then determines, you know, who to put forward as their final person. So that's up to your SAI, how to handle that. But we will only take one from each, up to one from each SAI. Okay, so Omar, have a question here, and hello, welcome. It says do you make our own proficiency in English test, or do you need the IELTS test? So we have the English proficiency requirement, it's in the application, as well as our frequently asked questions, which we put in the chat box, but it's the--we primarily use the TOEFL score, but we will take, consider other tests, like the IELTS, I know there's an equivalent between the two, so you can take that score, and then put it into a TOEFL score. So we will take a look at that, but yes, we will, we will take those two, two tests. 

[Aubrey Anderson:] Add to that, Mark, it's explained in the application, but if you have done a year of study, in the last three, in an English-speaking country, we're able to conduct an interview, just to see that you have the English proficiency that will enable you to succeed in the program. 

[Mark Keenan:] Yes, thanks for adding that, Aubrey, I appreciate it. And the question came in, how many participants per SAI can be selected? So again, we're limiting it to one nominee per SAI, so it would be up to one participate per SAI, will be selected for the program. So, I hope that answers that question? Okay, and I am not seeing any raised hands. If I'm missing you, for some reason, please just you can unmute yourself and ask your question. I'm not seeing any, any raised hands. Again, one other question that we also get that comes in is if I participate in the virtual program, will I still be eligible to participate in the in-person program once that resumes? And the answer is yes. But please note that the participation in the virtual doesn't provide a priority selection when you apply for the in-person. So just because you're in the virtual doesn't mean it necessarily gives you some kind of priority to get into it, but we do, definitely will accept you, you can definitely apply for the in-person when it resumes, even if you do the virtual. Alright, I'm going to give it maybe a couple more minutes here, see if we have any more questions, or if there's anything Brenda, or Aubrey, of frequently asked questions that you wanted to put out there, although let me go here, to Alejandra, for a question, unless you--I think I see your hand up?

[Alejandra:] Sorry Mr. Keenan, it's just, I went through the application form, and the frequently asked questions, and I think I'm not fully understanding what is strategy paper? If you could please explain to me a little bit more? What is this? 

[Mark Keenan:] Sure, sure.

[Alejandra:] Thank you, thank you sorry about that, it's just that I didn't get it. 

[Mark Keenan:] No problem, no problem. And it's important, because it's a very key component to our program. So this, the strategy paper is essentially an issue, a challenge, that your SAI faces that the leadership, including the head of the SAI, would like to have addressed, and it's something, again along the lines of recent papers that have been on, you know, developing a strategic plan, instituting, you know, change, management, with of course, going into COVID and having to go, everything into virtual, running a team effectively in that environment, and an audit team, or doing real-time auditing. It could be, and as I mentioned before, fighting waste fraud abuse, it could be on how to develop effective recommendations that have impact, that will, you know, have the best chance of being implemented. So there is a variety of topics. It's really, the idea behind it, the cornerstone of this is that there is an area that the SAI would like to see some improvement in, in that, the task here is that the fellow brings that--works with the SAI leadership--to identify what that challenge is. And then, prepare an idea for writing a paper to develop the idea and then hopefully some recommendations to improve whatever the issue is, once the person returns to the SAI, and then the SAI works with them to help adopt those changes. So it's, there's a lot of flexibility there, with determining what the topic is, because it really depends on what the SAI is facing, and what challenges they are facing, so we don't want to tell you necessarily what the topic should be, but it's certainly a topic that we'll also try to tie into all the coursework that we have. We want to make it the most meaningful because we know that the strategy paper is going to be key. It's going to help bring back, implement whatever change that you're looking for, and so we want to make sure the course work also supports and ties together with the strategy paper topic. So that is what is really, the strategy paper is about. And if you do need more details, we could probably provide that and update our frequently asked questions with some more concrete examples as well. We'd be happy to do that.

[Alejandra:] Thank you very much. 

[Mark Keenan:] You're very welcome, and Tiare, I would ask you? It looks like you have your hand up?

[Tiare:] Yes thank you very much. I saw the form, and at the very bottom of, there is something called Mission Teams, including the science and technology assessment, and I would like to know if there is some part of technology involved? I mean, if we can meet someone who is in charge of the science and technology department? And if that is related to big data issues? Or algorithms, that can be effective for audit? 

[Mark Keenan:] Yes, Tiare, thank you for that question. Appreciate it. Yes, we--so Mission Teams, what that refers to at GAO, we're divided into 13 Mission Teams, which basically cover all of the areas of our federal government, so areas like natural resources, environment, that's a team. Defense is a team. Health care is a team, and so forth. But we do have some kind of over-arching teams as well, and I think you mentioned science and technology so we stood up a new team a couple years ago that focuses on really forward thinking. Like you mentioned, uses of big data, and data mining and things like that. And we do plan to have the leadership from that team participate and come to speak to the fellows and answer questions. We know those are always very valuable conversations, and so we want to make sure we make that happen. We also have a team which is our applied research and methodology team, and they--basically provide every audit at GAO support for developing methodologies. Things like help with economic analysis, and survey development, all those kinds of things, and so we always also have them come, and provide an overview of what they do, how they support our teams, and they're very happy to engage with the fellows, and answer your questions, and exchange ideas. So I just wanted to say yes, we'll have those people, we plan to have them participate in the program, and provide a session.

[Tiare:] Thank you. 

[Mark Keenan:] You're welcome. 

[Aubrey Anderson:] Mark, I'd like to add a little bit to Tiare, and then I can address Carlos' question in the chat.

[Mark Keenan:] Sure. 

[Aubrey Anderson:] And so the GAO team, we here at SPEL are really interested in the fellows’ success, and we are going to do our best, based on your strategy paper topic, matching you with someone who is an expert in that area, and then if you come up with someone that you would really like to talk to at GAO, we'll do our best to find someone in the agency who can schedule a time with you, so that you have access to experts, in whichever area you’d like. So look forward to that. And then, to Carlos' question, do I need to have a major audit or economics related in order to apply? And the answer is no. This is about--you're welcome Tiare--this is, we're more concerned about experience with audit, and not your educational background, and so we do not specify any formal education that you have to have in order to participate? Does that answer your question, Carlos? You're welcome.

[Carlos:] It did, great. 

[Mark Keenan:] Alright, we're coming up, we have a few minutes left, so I wanted to see if there's any last-minute questions? We appreciate everyone who has asked questions. The group here today has asked some really good questions, and we appreciate the thought that goes into it. And like I said, we--we're open to questions afterward. Please, take note of this email address, and we will get back to you. We monitor that email address all the time, so, and we'll get back to people, and if we do update our frequently asked questions document, we will try to address some of the issues raised today as well. 

[Aubrey Anderson:] We're sorry to hear that, Carla. Good luck learning English, so we can see you in a future program. 

[Mark Keenan:] Thanks for getting that, Aubrey. Okay, so I'll give one last--okay, Edgar wrote, is TOEFL exam mandatory? Yes, we do need a TOEFL score or equivalent, and like I said, you can send us what you have, but we do need to have that, and the requirements for the TOEFL, in terms of the number and the score and all that, is in the application. But yes, it is mandatory, unless you, you have studied in an English-speaking country for the last year, or English is the Official language in the country. So other than those, we do need to have a TOEFL, or an equivalent score. Karen asked, should the topic of the strategy paper be focused on performance audit? I--really, that is up to, to you. The focus of our program, as I mentioned, is on performance auditing, and so it's kind of looking at auditing through that lens, not on the--focus is not on financial auditing. But that's said. If there is a financial component to it, and that's what is of concern, or you know, critical nature, for your SAI. Then I wouldn't want to say you can't look at that as something that's not performance audit. But that is the focus of the program, I want to be clear. Performance audit is the focus of the program. And so try to look at it through that, through that lens. Okay, well I see we're coming up on the hour, and we, and I don't think, I don't see any more questions. So I believe, you know, I want to make sure we respect your time here, and we appreciate everyone, certainly making the time to come. We had a great turnout this afternoon, and we fully recognize, you may have more questions, especially once you start doing the application, so please reach out to us, and know that this is a pilot, so we are doing our very best, so the first time doing this in a virtual way. Omar, please, go ahead and ask your question, before we wrap up, no problem. Oh, I think, I see Andres asked, can the test be for applying? I'm not sure what, what that one is? But the test that we do, steer towards the TOEFL, the T-O-E-F-L test. There are some others, like the IELTS, that we can consider, basically when in doubt, if you want to send us, send it to us, we can get back to you and let you know, we'll be able to accept the test. Okay and then there is a final question here, do you need the general TOEFL, training or the academic one? And that, I'm going to have to say I'm not familiar with the difference, so we may have to follow up, unless Brenda or Aubrey are familiar with that difference, I am not. So—

[Brenda Fernandez:] So, I'm not sure. I would have to go back. I know there is, and it's escaping me right now, I'm sorry. I'll go back to that. I will, I'm going to take their name, and get back to them. Because I--I know which one they're speaking about, or writing about, but I just, it's not coming to my mind right now [laughing]. 

[Mark Keenan:] Sure, so Omar, we'll get back to you on that, and if others let us know, if you want to know as well. We can get back to the group on that. Thank you. Okay, well, since it is now 2:00, we're going to go ahead and conclude here. Again, a big thank you to all of you for joining us today. Really makes us excited to do this, knowing that we've got so many people that are interested. And so this, this is just getting us excited to do the program. Anyway, please reach out. Any more questions? We're always here. We're happy to help you and explain anything we can. And otherwise, we wish you all the best with health and safety for you and your families, and we will look forward to seeing your application if you choose to go that way. And hopefully we can, we'll all continue to work together as we have. I know we have a lot of very strong relationship with all the SAIs on this call. So, thanks so much. 

[Brenda Fernandez:] Mark—

[Mark Keenan:] Yes, Brenda, go ahead. 

[Brenda Fernandez:] Sorry to add--so I did look up real quick, so it's the TOEFL IBT, that's the one that gives you the--that we'd be looking for the score of 80. That's the internet base, and the academic, not in the general realm, so that's the academic version. 

[Mark Keenan:] Okay great, we'll add that to our FAQ. To the frequently asked questions. Great, thanks for looking that up on the fly, Brenda, I appreciate that. 

[Brenda Hernandez:] No worries. 

[Mark Keenan:] Okay, with that, I think we will conclude. Thanks everyone. Have a nice rest of your day.