Following the reform in Lagos State Public Service with regard to manpower and capacity development, a significant number of Public Servants have undergone training in varied courses since the beginning of the year.
This affirmation was made by the Honourable Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Mrs. Ajibola Ponnle during a strategic meeting with the management staff of the ministry today. She said the number of those trained cuts across grade level, cadre, gender and Agency of assignment.
Whilst stating the different platforms adopted for training which included online and physical (face-to-face) training, she revealed that about 28,000 public servants have benefitted from online courses whilst 2,500 have had physical (face-to-face) training stating that the figure excludes those involved in micro learning Webinar series.
Declaring that the figure was unprecedented and marked a watershed in the training administration in Lagos State, Mrs. Ponnle added that it represented a dramatic shift from the previous arrangement where only 3000 public servants are trained in four years.
She asserted that the introduction of the Learning Management System, which has a variety of learning contents with over 4,000 free, self-enrollment courses and 8,000 courses from the LinkedIn Learning Library, has brought remarkable changes in the training climate in Lagos pointing out that the intention was to drive radical change in the public sector to address capacity deficit, enhance efficiency and competence among civil servants.
‘One significant aspect of this programme is that it has made it possible to practically phase out low training quota in the State’s civil service which used to be 3,000 staff in four years prior to this administration. For us, it is really a game changer, and I think the beauty of the process is also that we are able to mandate public servants to do certain courses’, she said.
Mrs. Ponnle pointed out that the figure could be higher because some MDAs compel their staff to undergo certain courses making reference to the Ministry of Science and Technology which since the middle of the year mandated 25 courses for their technical and non-technical staff.
Whilst maintaining that training programmes transcend the entire spectrum and hierarchy of the State Service, she disclosed that some of those who have not benefitted from previous trainings have been nominated already pointing out that selection process was objective even as the courses are always over-subscribed.
The Commissioner hinted that the State government is changing the style of training to workshop/experiential learning session in the next phase of training. The objective of that change, according to her, is to ensure that the participants really understand the key objectives of the training and are able to practicalize it immediately in their various ministries and agencies.
“So the workshop style approach is basically to ensure that trainees are able to apply concepts learn at workshop in their MDAs”. She cited a workshop on writing job descriptions, where at the end of the program participants had to go back to their MDAs and develop Job Description for the core jobs there.
It would be recalled that the ministry introduced several other impactful programmes during the administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu and part of them include EXCO Shares, Executive Coaching, Conell/LASU partnership initiative and SHIFT amongst others.