Building Competencies in Civil Services

Mandatory Training

The Star, Front page, 11th. April 2005

A great step forward move by Public Service Department

Now, the ministry is going to ensure that it is mandatory for all civil servants to attend courses that will enhance their knowledge, skills, and attitudes to build competencies and to ensure life-long learning process is a culture within the organization which will emphasize on continuous improvement. In short, PSD is building a learning organization.

This move does not mean that PSD had not been training their people, but that the previous training are arranged at random, selective and elective mode.

The 850,000 civil servants throughout the country will now have to attend mandatory courses every year. The courses selected are to equip the civil servants with the right attitude, skills and knowledge which are necessary to inculcate the lifelong learning culture that provides the process of continuous improvement amongst government employees.

For this purpose, government ministries and departments are now required to set aside at least 1% of their yearly allocation for the annual training. Every ministry secretary-general or department head must also make sure that staff at all levels attend the courses for at least seven days annually. These are among the measures implemented under a new human resources training policy announced by Public Services Department director-general Tan Sri Jamaluddin Ahmad Damanhuri last week.

“Considering the importance of human resources development in the public sector, the policy calls for every civil servant to equip himself with the right attitude, skills and knowledge via a planned programme based on the upgrading of competency and lifelong learning,” Tan Sri Jamaluddin Ahmad Damanhuri said in a circular announcing the decision. “All ministry secretary-generals and heads of departments will be given the power to decide on the planning and identification of training needs in their respective agencies, decide on the courses and the candidates, and ensure that all money spent for the purpose is in order. They must also make sure that candidates submit a report of their courses upon completion, and that all participation is noted in the employee's service record,” he said.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Although this initiative is the right move forward, the question arise as to how PSD and the various ministries, its secretary-generals and heads of department are going to decide on the "Right" courses and the "Right" candidates for each courses, to ensure that the objectives and goals are met.

Fundamental to this question will be the process under which these leaders will be able to identify those needs. It may end up that the process may identify the "Wants and desires" but not the "real Needs".

What is paramount in order to make this initiative a success, is the planned development of the processes to identify those courses that are necessary to correct the "weaknesses or shortcomings of the system", how these training could mould the candidates 'knoweldge and skill gaps' such that they will become an asset that adds value to the system; and whether those trainers have the ability and competency to "Change" and "Motivate" the participants to be "Desirous of the Change" or will we be having the same learning by rote.

At the end of each course, how could the benefits and improvements be measured - that is, does the departments have a set of performance measuring tools? Maybe, the 6-sigma system may come in handy to evaluate the progress of system improvement.

I hope the PSD is not "Cakap Tak Serupa Bikin". The legislature and the executives are always good at forwarding creative plans and initiatives but lacks the spirit of implementation and the systems in place are unable to sustain the momentum.