Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Minister of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms, Dr Anjiv Ramdhany, announced that an independent audit exercise would be conducted as soon as possible in order to improve the existing training strategies for public officers as he stressed the importance and relevance of training, capacity building and continuous professional development in the public sector.
The Minister was speaking at the opening ceremony of a half-day Workshop on effective Training Committees, this morning, at the Caudan Arts Centre in Port Louis, in the presence of the Secretary for Public Service, Mr Koosiram Conhye, and other personalities.
The Workshop was organised in collaboration with the Civil Service College, Mauritius, for Chairpersons of Training Committees and Training Managers. According to Minister, capacity building and capacity development are key pillars of transformation for a modern, responsive, and resilient Public Service that will meet the needs and aspirations of the population.
He highlighted the necessity to have a clear scoreboard on the effectiveness of training offered to public officers as well as to define clear metrics and gauge the impacts of training programmes offered to public officers by the Civil Service College, Mauritius.
On that score, Dr Ramdhany stated that the Public Service Ministry will be discussing with stakeholders on the way to rebrand and review the Civil Service College, Mauritius, with the objective of better meeting the training needs and aspirations of public officers.
He mentioned the upcoming consultations with global players in the area of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in order to accelerate the creation of a knowledge culture and lifelong learning in the public service.
He informed as well that the construction of the Civil Service College, Mauritius, with the assistance of the Government of the Republic of India, will be completed in early 2024. The Minister was of the view that training should focus on good governance, accountability, streamlining of processes and change management.
He added that consideration should be given to the impact of emerging and disruptive technologies which called for a review of the training and capacity ecosystem to provide public officers the required new skills and tools to face the challenges and adapt to a work environment driven by technologies and innovation.
Hence, the Minister welcomed the implementation of the recommendation of the Pay Research Bureau (PRB) Report 2021 with 57 officers across the public service recently being assigned the responsibilities of Training Managers.
“Such a measure will no doubt contribute to ensuring that all public officers receive training for an aggregate of 40 to 60 hours per year, as recommended by the PRB, and to improving the quality of training through the conduct of regular training needs analysis,” he said.
Dr Ramdhany gave the assurance that the totality of the training budget allocated to the Ministries and Departments, representing an amount of Rs 93 m, would be fully utilised.
Furthermore, Dr Ramdhany affirmed that in line with the PRB 2021 Report, the Ministry will embark on the review of the Performance Management System. He talked of the new features of the System which would encompass performance, not only at an individual level, but also at the departmental and organisational levels.
“It will be digitalised and integrated with the e-HR system to ensure evidence-based strategies in respect of performance, training, and capacity building,” he stated.
Finally, the Minister underpinned the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Mauritius with a view to enhancing collaboration with the focus on promoting digital resources, joint research initiatives, faculty exchanges and other mutually beneficial activities.
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