FG expresses commitment to training, retraining of workers

THE Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to training and retraining of workers in the public service so as to improve productivity in service delivery.

Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, who said this, particularly noted that training of the federal public servants would no longer be seen as welfare package used to douse labour tensions.

She spoke in Abuja while inaugurating Departmental Training Officers (DTOs) of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government.

She said that training and retraining of the federal public servants is essential to development of the nation. Oyo-Ita, further explained that the inauguration was part of efforts to achieve the recently signed Executive Orders by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, aimed at easing business and fast tracking budget submissions.

She noted that over the years, training had become a welfare package without government getting the true value for the money spent on training public servants, which, she said had made the quality of output from public servants very questionable.

“In those days, the directors of administration and personnel sat and defended their training budget and work plan. This kept the MDAs focused and that is what we are bringing back now. If we are not properly trained, we cannot transfer any form of excellence into the business of the country”, she said.

Mrs. Oyo-Ita said that the goal of the Office of the Head of Service was to enhance capacity development in the service by making it proactive, result -oriented and a catalyst for national development.

The Head of Service added that it had become imperative to reposition our human capacity development system through formidable DTOs platform for proper coordination, implementation and monitoring of training activities within respective MDAs.

Oyo-Ita said that her office would partner with the DTOs forum to achieve these objectives; conduct employees training needs assessment, design/review of training curriculum, revise MDAs training guidelines, among others.

According to her, the public service was the main instrument through which government implemented and administered public policies and programmes.

She, therefore, called on the DTOs to be committed and render the necessary assistance required for the effective implementation of all training programmes in the MDAs.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Career Management Office (CMO), in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan, said that training must stop being a welfare package, stressing further that gone were the days when people were sent on training and they came back with nothing.

Yemi-Esan added that the training of DTOs would bring the desired change and participants would serve as change agents. Adding that a lot had been done in recent times to improve the public service which included the signing of Executive Orders and the inauguration of Civil Service Strategic Plan.

She stressed that civil servants were at the centre of driving these instructions and that without adequate training, it could not be achieved.

One of the participants, Mrs Omobola Adenuga, Deputy Director, Training, in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, pledged the commitment of the DTOs to ensuring the set goals were achieved.

She said that they would ensure they formulated training proposals that would be relevant to their respective organisations.