Mar 16, 2017 08:03 AM EDT By Emily Marks, UniversityHerald Reporter

Georgetown University and the University of Maryland have agreed to offer partial scholarships to federal employees. This comes through an agreement with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

The new agreements went into effect on Tuesday, Mar. 14, Federal Times reported. Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies and the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business were two of the four colleges and universities who carried on with the agreement.

The other schools are College for America at Southern New Hampshire University and Drexel University Online. The agreement is intended to help federal workers develop mission-critical job skills in areas such as acquisition, human resources, financial auditing and economics. It also aims to equip employees in information technology, specifically in cybersecurity and STEM-related fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

The OPM noted that SNHU and Drexel have extended the benefits to the spouses and dependents of federal employees. The University of Maryland will extend the partial scholarship's benefits to spouses of the workers.

The four schools have offered online programs in addition to Georgetown's and the University of Maryland's on-campus classes. The former announced that it would offer 10 percent of scholarships to all federal employees enrolled in its School of Continuing Studies.

Georgetown also added that it is building a new center of excellence in program management. This came after the enacting of the Program Management and Improvement Accountability Act, which developed best practices for federal projects.

In a press release, it was confirmed that Georgetown SCS currently offers 14 Master of Professional Studies programs in diverse focus areas like Project Management, Technology Management and Urban & Regional Planning. Students can enroll on either a full-time or part-time basis and several of these programs are available online.

Georgetown also offers three Executive Master of Professional Studies degrees in Emergency & Disaster Managemetn, Global Strategic Communications and Program & Portfolio Management. The new program by OPM offers certificates, master's degrees and executive master's degrees based on program and portfolio management skills.

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