The staff of the Department for Community Development and Religion (DFCDR) will now be able to advance their career opportunities after an agreement signing on Friday October 15.
In a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the department and the Pacific Institute of Leadership and Governance (PILAG), this will provide opportunities for staff who wish to further Public Management training or enhance their capacity through various competency training programs offered by PILAG.
DFCDR Secretary, Jerry Ubase said: “Public servants must undertake High Competency Based Training to ensure competitive effort to deliver government programs and activities.”
The Secretary thanked PILAG’s CEO Michael Barobe, stating that the MoU was written in a way to address specific training needs and plans for staff in the department and fulfil the priorities of the Government.
Secretary Ubase, CEO Barobe and Principle Legal Officer of the Department in the presence of few department staff and PILAG staff witnessed the document signing.
“This MoU will support and ensure the department has a competent and dedicated workforce that is able to deliver community development programs through this partnership initiative.
“Through this initiative our cooperation efforts will scale up activities and access for our department personnel, our stakeholders and beneficiaries of our programs to undertake competency based trainings and programs, specific to the legislations, policies and programs for the department,” Mr Ubase said.
Mr Barobe said the partnership or such initiative with this particular department is long overdue and with this MoU signing, it adds more purpose and meaning because PILAG is the Government’s mandated Public Sector Training Institute.
“We strive to offer high competency based training to meet the skill level required by public servants. This kind of partnership with the department is very important and gives prominence to the staff who receive our training to perform effectively as we expect to see higher output by officers after receiving training from us,” he said.
Moreover, Mr Barobe told the Secretary and the department staff that they are happy to accept and receive staff that wish to take up their programs even if the department does not have the money to pay for their fees. However, they can be paid later when the funds are made available the department.
The department also added that they would be rolling out online training courses to cater for those that wises to study and work at their workplace at a minimum cost.