A 21-month electronic Learning Platform programme to improve human resource skills to enhance economic growth has been rolled out with the support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The GHS 1.2 million project which also seeks to improve the quality of civil service education and training and the Civil Service Training Center (CSTC) is under JICA’s Strengthening the Human Resource Capacity of the Civil Service project.
This was made known at a media briefing on the project held in Accra on Thursday.
Speaking at the media engagement, the Principal of CSTC, Mrs Dora Dei-Tumi, said the 15-year partnership with JICA had positioned the institution to function effectively to execute its core mandate.
She said CSTS had been able to train and developed the capacity of the Civil and Public Service officers at the professional level, adding that the number of trainees had increased from 123 to 5000 in the past two decades.
“When it comes to infrastructure, physical infrastructure JICA has been very supportive with our building, buses, vehicles, as if that is not enough, it has also positioned us to, apart from running our training programmes here domestically, we are also able to support the sub-regional concept like organising training for Sierra Leone, Liberia, and other international institutions,” Mrs Dei-Tumi noted.
To leverage technology and make training sessions interactive on its E-learning platform, the Principal said with help from JICA, a video conference facility was established to help participants both within and outside the country to partake in the training sessions.
“So we have the video conference facility so that if you are outside the country, in the regions, or you may even be in Accra, but you do not have the time to come to CSTC you are able to sit in front of your machine, be it your laptop or even your phone, to join us in the classroom, to meet with the facilitator to ask questions and have your questions answered,” she explained.
Mrs Dei-Tumi noted that, CSTS did not only train civil servants but also train public servants, indicating that the Parliamentary Service brought about 181 offices last year to be trained by CSTC.
The Chief Representative of JICA, Ghana, Ms Momoko Suzuki, said JICA had a long-standing partnership with the Office of the Civil Service (OHCS), supporting the capacity strengthening of its training Centre, the CSTC which has witnessed an incredible transformation over the years.
She stated that, JICA believed there was a positive correlation between education and economic growth, stressing that it was important to invest in quality education.
To improve economic growth, she said there was the need to develop courses for practicing ‘Kaizen’ (Continuous Improvement) in the public sector.
To aid in developing the courses and implement it in the training center, “In February this year, 12 officers from CSTC along with JICA teams, visited the Kaizen Excellence Center and the other institutions in Ethiopia to observe the practical application of Kaizen in Africa,” she said.
BY CECILIA LAGBA YADA
