Public Administration Ministry, UWI sign agreement

UWI's St Augustine campus and the Ministry of Public Administration have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop a more efficient and responsive public service.

The announcement was made at the UWI, St Augustine campus on July 8.

The collaboration aims to modernise the Public Service Academy, responsible for training Trinidad and Tobago's 60,000 public officers.

The initial phase of the three-year MOU will target 3,000 public officers across different levels, focusing on areas of policy development, leadership and conflict management.

UWI principal Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine said the MOU demonstrated the campus's “unwavering commitment to national development.”

“Our campus has been actively collaborating with various ministries for over three decades, providing training to the public sector.

“Our interventions include formal degree programmes in public administration and public-sector management and tailored leadership workshops.

“We are proud to have been offering our Certificate in Public Administration for over 30 years, which is considered a requirement for promotion in the public service.”

Antoine said the goals of the initiative include creating an agile and client-focused, proactive, results-oriented and performance-driven public service.

“This collaboration intends to equip public officers with the necessary skills and expertise to tackle modern public service challenges.”

UWI will work with the ministry to review needs analysis data and develop proposals for continuous, adaptable training interventions.

“We, therefore, intend for this initiative to be continuous, agile and adaptable to the needs of the service.”

Minister of Public Administration Allyson West said this programme will help maintain training opportunities on a long-term basis.

“In the last ten years, the average number of people we train in the service is 500 a year and then we have 60,000 public servants.

“If you do the rough maths, you would see that maintaining training opportunities in the future would be completely untenable."

She said rather than restructure the Public Service Academy, she thought it would be better to call on already existing institutions to help with the public-sector training shortfalls.

“The university already possesses the courses public service officers need training in."

She said this MOU would enhance the productivity of the public sector.