The EU financed project Supporting Comprehensive Reform of Public Administration in Ukraine (EU4PAR) together with the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service held an international conference "Civil Service Training and Development: What Can Ukraine Learn From Its Peers" on December 3 in Kyiv.

"Today, we are facing many challenges - economic, political, and social. Ukraine's intensive integration into European structures puts high demands for the public service. It is impossible to be in line with them without new skills of civil servants", Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Olexandr Saienko stressed, while opening the conference.

The international conference is devoted to the issues of reforming the training system of civil servants in Ukraine. Creating an effective education system is the basis for the training of new civil servants who should be the driving force for successful change, the implementation of public administration reform and other major reforms in Ukraine. Modern civil servants should have leadership skills and be capable to manage changes effectively. And civil servants training should ensure the development of important skills.

"The professional training system should offer modern and relevant knowledge, be flexible and focused on individual needs, and integrated into the human resource management system. And the essential thing is to develop leadership in the public service, " Olexandr Saienko underscored.

During the conference, Ukrainian and international experts discussed ways to shape an effective system of professional improvement in the civil service in Ukraine. Leading experts of the European Schools of Public Administration in France, Poland, Latvia, Finland shared an experience of the functioning of the civil service training in their countries, and Ukrainian experts told about their best practices in reforming the education system.

Due to the discussions and experience exchange,  the sides succeeded in defining a common vision for reforming the civil service training in Ukraine, which  envisages the introduction of a mechanism for determining the training needs of public servants, development of high-quality and relevant training programmes, increase demand and motivation for training among civil servants, and ensuring an effective public-private mechanism for providing educational services for civil servants.

The successful reform of the civil service training system requires effective collaboration between public sector employees, managers and officials responsible for strategic planning and management services staff in ministries, central agencies responsible for the training system, including the National Agency on Civil Service,  also government bodies that are responsible for carrying out public administration reform- the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and  both public and private education service providers.