Leadership Academy participant: it's not just about gaining knowledge, it's about sharing experience
The Public Management Agency develops the competences of civil service managers with the help of an EU-funded project. Training at the Leadership Academy is in full swing. We ask Goda Aleksaitė, Director of the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority, about her impressions as a participant of the training.
"Managers in public organisations have slightly different requirements than managers in business. Managers of public organisations are bound by the common interest of the state, whereas in the private sector the goal is profit. Cooperation in business is often more important when it is profitable. In a public institution, we have to forget profitability. It is not about looking at how much budget allocations will fall to which organisation next year, but about finding solutions on how we can work together to achieve results with the least amount of resources and in the most efficient way," says Goda Aleksaitė, Director of the State Consumer Rights Protection Authority (SCRPA).
According to Ms Aleksaitė, managers in the public sector are very different, not least because they have very different experiences in managing organisations of different sizes. Some are responsible for smaller organisations, while others have to manage organisations with hundreds of employees. Therefore, the Director of the IATUC believes that networking is very important for managers, allowing them to deepen and share their expertise and competences.
"In this academy, managers not only have a networking space, but also the opportunity to initially assess their experience and leadership maturity, and then receive the necessary knowledge and training," said G. Aleksaitė.
What is most lacking in the area of competence building for public sector managers? "Courage. The courage to act and change. Managers of public organisations have to face a lack of trust from politicians, the public and, at the beginning, often from their own team. Then managers are often cautious, afraid to take bold decisions. Strengthening the competences of public sector managers is therefore an area of particular importance for the whole country", emphasises the Head of the SABS.
The project will develop and implement a competence development system for civil service managers (Leadership Academy). This will be achieved through the introduction of an e-learning platform, the development and implementation of introductory training modules tailored to the needs of the trainees, the development and approval of a methodology for assessing the competences and identifying the development needs of the leaders of the civil service, and the creation of personalised training programmes.
A new virtual learning environment, Moodle, will be launched this month to support the effective development of competences of public sector managers. The virtual learning environment will allow participants to strengthen their knowledge in a systematic, efficient and focused way, simultaneously from different cities in Lithuania.
The project is expected to train at least 150 civil service managers.