By Dr. Reg Broekmann
The public service has undergone a major change since 1994 reminiscent of the change in 1948 when, almost overnight, the public service changed from English to Afrikaans. Our current change, though, is not one of language but of training.
Under normal circumstances, an individual would have to qualify, on the basis of training and experience, for a particular post. In addressing the injustices of the past, some appointments were not based on a strong emphasis on experience and qualifications. The result of this process is a public service which is largely under-capacitated to manage the challenges facing an ever-expanding bureaucracy in an ever more complex external environment.
This situation is ‘good news’ for training companies, which, like Regenesys, foresee a more-or-less unending need for training, and which will provide good income over the long term.
However, a significant problem faced by training companies is the ‘attitude’ of the learners. Having already been appointed to a post, there is little incentive to learn and study, making such ‘retro-training’ less effective than it could be. Not only is this frustrating for teachers, but managers, who want to see discernable benefits after employees have been on training courses, may also become disillusioned with our training offerings.
This is not good news for training companies. If the funders of training become disillusioned with private providers, they may attempt to solve the problems by further developing internal capacity to provide training – a trend which is already visible in the policies of the DPSA. While this is not likely to be a successful strategy in the longer term (bureaucracy, and the difficulty in attracting and retaining top staff), it could negatively affect business interests of training companies for a protracted period.
The situation suggests that a different approach to the training of public officials should be considered. Possibly we could think of a ‘vocational qualification’ rather than an academic one. Such an option could be based on a long-term training and mentoring approach which will develop competencies over longer periods of time (three to five years). Vocational training could involve ‘block releases’ which could concentrate on both hard and soft skills, assignments, one-on-one mentoring and regular discussions with the relevant managers.
This suggestion is presented as a discussion point and comments would be most welcome.
