The Ministry of Public Service launched its first ever virtual training programme for public servants as the country continues to deal with the new measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Minister Sonia Parag said training and retraining is an essential aspect of every organisation, and one of the priorities of the public service is to support administrative reform and modernisation to maximise efficiency.
“This initiative to facilitate training virtually, to public servants concretises the Ministry’s commitment to developing Guyana’s public sector in ensuring a high standard of performance,” the Minister said.
“Coupled with that is the fact that as [a] developing country, we are looking to meet the needs of changing and emerging sectors,” she added.
Minister Parag reminded the participants that while it is the lecturer who has to deliver the lesson, the onus is on them to learn.
Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary Ms. Soyinka Grogan said despite the pandemic, public servants will still be offered opportunities to enhance their expertise.
“Public servants can be [assured] that while they have been displaced by COVID-19, they can still be in our training programmes,” she said, adding that “the year 2020 has allowed us to have a paradigm shift and embrace technology as the new normal for effective public service delivery.”
Ms. Grogan further stated that the training will also contribute greatly in the long-term to the Ministry’s success and by extension, to the country’s development. She urged all public servants to capitalise on the opportunity to learn.
Six programmes have been developed to date by the Development and Operations Unit of the Ministry’s Training Division.
Manager, Ms. Cornelly Walcott Ramdeen, said that online training, though not formally introduced to the Guyana populace, has always been available in Guyana.
Ms. Ramdeen said her team has worked tirelessly to design and redesign training programmes over the past few months.
The programmes developed by the unit so far are:
1. Customer care (October 5-9, 2020)
2. Building virtual teams (October 12-16, 2020)
3. Communications in the office (October 19-13, 2020)
4. Train the trainers (October 26-30, 2020)
5. Supervisory management (November 9-13, 2020)
6. Change management (November 16-20, 2020)
More programmes are being developed.
Further, they will be offered on Zoom, Edmodo, Google, Google Jam Board, and Kahoot!
Agencies can secure training for their employees by making a formal request to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry.
The Ministry will also be putting systems in place to design agency-specific programmes.
All programmes are certified. Exams are not required for completion; however, active participation, at least 80 per cent attendance, and the completion of an evaluation form/action plan are necessary to receive the certificate.
Over 20 stakeholders participated in the virtual launch, including the Guyana Power and Light Company, Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, GoInvest, and the Guyana Energy Agency.
Persons can call 225-0710 or visit http://[email protected]/ for additional information.
