Africa-Press – Mauritius. A training programme, aimed at sensitising newly designated Training Managers of their roles and responsibilities in Human Capital Management in their organisation, opened this morning, at the Caudan Arts Centre, Port Louis.
The Minister of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms, Mr Teeruthraj Hurdoyal; the Chairperson of the Civil Service College, Mr Harry Ganoo; and the Secretary for Public Service, Ministry of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms, Mr Bojrazsingh Boyramboli, were present.
In his keynote address, Minister Hurdoyal highlighted that training is universally acknowledged as a critical component of human resource development and remains one of the main concerns of Management to sustain employees’ continual growth.
It aims at improving the performance and productivity of staff and ensures that employees have the relevant updated skills, knowledge and commitment to change entrenched mind-sets, he said.
He emphasised that Government in its Programme 2020–2024, advocated investment in human resources to acquire and enhance relevant skills through training.
He further added that in its 2015-2019 Programme, Government committed itself to bring transformational change in the public service to render it more responsible and responsive in order to inculcate a continuous learning culture and provide an expedient service to boost the economy.
Moreover, Training and Development have always occupied a prominent place in all PRB reports with a view to promote a vibrant and effective public service in responding to existing and new challenges, he stated.
He however deplored that during the past years, training budgets allocated to Ministries and departments were not fully utilised. Only 40 to 45% of the allocated funds are used and consequently, training budget has been drastically reduced from around Rs 115 million to around Rs 45 million recently, he underlined.
Addressing the designated Training Managers, Minister Hurdoyal appealed to them to work towards upgrading the skills and competencies of public officers operating in their Ministry or department.
“You are expected to interact constantly with different heads of unit and section to identify skills gaps and to identify areas of new skills and competencies required to tackle issues and new challenges”, he added.
He also dwelt on the roles and responsibilities of the Training Managers who will sit on Training Committees to help elaborate Training Action Plan for the short term as well as the strategy for the long term that will take on board the specific training needs and requirements of each and every Ministry, department, or organisation.
The Training Managers, he underlined, will also ensure that there is optimum use of funds allocated in their budget under their respective vote items for training of staff.
Speaking about the objectives of the training session, he observed that it will help the newly designated Training Managers to better understand their assigned duties, to learn how to conduct Training Needs Analysis, to understand their role as a member of the training committee, to learn how to create database of employees, and to instill a learning and development culture in their Ministry or department.
For his part, the Chairperson of the Civil Service College, Mr Harry Ganoo, stated that training and development have always been on the agenda of the public service.
He underlined that with the help of training and development, the public sector can use Human Resources practices to help employees become more adept at performing in their respective jobs.
The value of training cannot be overemphasised, and training is needed at every level because it brings an improvement in an employee’s skill, which in turn increases the quality and quantity of output, he added.
Speaking about the newly designated Training Managers, he said that they need to be committed and motivated and assist Ministries in becoming learning organisations.
He further pointed out that the recent PRB report 2021 has stressed highly on sustainable continual growth and nurturing a culture of performance at all grades of employees and recommended the designation of an officer not below the grade of Assistant Manager, Human Resources as Training Manager to be responsible for the implementation of Training and Development so as to equip public officers with the required skills, knowledge, and competencies.
As for the Secretary for Public Service, Ministry of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms, Mr Boyramboli, he underlined that capacity building has been central in the Ministry’s actions in terms of reskilling and training of Public Officers.
He recalled that the main objective of Government is to promote a vibrant and effective public service in responding to existing and new challenges as well as offer citizen-centric service to the population. A total of 57 Training Managers are participating in the programme which will be held in two batches.
The course, organised jointly by the Ministry of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms and the Civil Service College, will focus on the identification of current and future Training Needs Assessment and Skill Auditing at organisational/departmental level, and the importance of training planning, budgeting, and evaluation. The facilitator is Dr Girish Nuckchady who is currently a Master Trainer in Leadership.
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