The investment made to renovate the Government Training Centre is a reflection of commitment from Government to upgrade and up-skill its workforce.
This is also in line with Pillars 3 and 4 of the Peoples Charter for Change, Peace and Progress, which states that it is necessary to have in place an effective, enlightened and accountable leadership and to have an efficient and service delivery focused public service.
In re-commissioning the centre Prime Minister Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama said his administration placed significant emphasis on education and human resource development.
This is evident, he said from the support they were giving to school children ranging from assistance towards bus fares, school text books, scholarships, grants to schools, provision of adequate number of teachers, conducive education policies and the significant support provided to tertiary institutions.
“Through the Roadmap and Strategic Framework for Change, Government emphasises the importance of having a highly skilled, well qualified, diligent, motivated and loyal Civil Service,” the Prime Minister said this morning at the centre.
“Accordingly, the public service must become more efficient and effective in both capacity and performance, in order to meet the needs of the people in the most cost-effective way.”
It cost more than $250,000 to upgrade the centre, which will see a marked improvement in the standard of training services that will be delivered through the PSC Training Plan, and its new training policy.
Commodore Bainimarama said improvements to this centre would allow for a greater number of civil servants to understand and correctly implement government procedures and policies of government that were covered in the PSC exam syllabus.
“This will also help in our fight to eradicate abuse, mismanagement and corruption,” he said.
“Government recognises the role donor agencies play in our national effort regarding human resource development. I sincerely acknowledge the training assistance offered to many of our civil servants by our development partners.
“As an example last year, apart from more than 60 long-term scholarships, there were about 500 civil servants sent overseas for training on short-term programmes. The majority of these were fully funded by our development partners.
“Training is a key feature of successful human resource management. If we wish to keep upgrading our standards, improving our efficiency and be modern; we cannot afford to be static. We need to constantly change our attitudes and think outside the box.
“The programme to train and educate civil servants needs to be on-going. The public sector management practices and processes need to be continuously upgraded to be in tandem with the latest developments in this globalised world.”
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