25,000 civil servants to benefit from FG’s training programme

THE Federal Government has disclosed plans to train over 25,000 civil servants as part of the ongoing efforts to reinvigorate the service.

Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, made this known at a meeting with the chief executive officers of Manpower Development Institutions (MDI) in the country.

Speaking at the occasion where the 2019 needs assessment report was presented, Oyo-Ita said the first and second batches of 3,500 (1,500 in the first batch and 2,000 in the second batch) would be trained next month by MDIs.

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She disclosed that the report followed the Training Needs Assessment (TNA) Survey of employees service-wide, to facilitate the development and delivery of targeted and impactful training programmes across the service.

She added that 1,076 civil servants on Grade levels seven-17 were requested to complete the survey, out of which 670 responded, for which they requested for training that were relevant to their areas of competences, contrary to general trainings in the past that were seen more like welfare package and for select few.

Oyo-Ita said this was the first time government had set out to do a detailed analogy of what the needs of the civil service were in line with their own interpretations.

She added that all along, the trainings that had been done had always come from outside and imposed on the civil servants.

The Head of Service said, “ Now, civil servants were given opportunity, through a survey, where 1,076 questionnaires were distributed to them and 670 responded.

“From these 670, an evidence-based assessment was carried out through data analysis from which we arrived at our findings.

“From these findings, we’ve discovered that some of the preconceived notions people have about civil servants are wrong. For instance, a good number of the civil servants are computer literate, hence, there is no need for rudimentary computer training.

“Almost 80 per cent  of them have gone beyond that, so, we now know that computer training will now be on the intermediate level. For those surveyed, the civil servants senior management cadre prefer trainings on policy management, in areas that will guide them on leadership skills and so on.

“The middle cadre like from levels 10-14, were more interested in project management, strategic human resource,” she said.