22nd October, 2021
The Lagos State Government on Thursday disclosed that it has trained over 30,000 public servants since the beginning of this year.
Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Mrs. Ajibola Ponnle disclosed this during a strategic meeting with the management staff of the ministry.
She said the number of those trained cuts across grade level, cadre, gender and Agency of assignment.
Ponnle revealed that about 28,000 public servants have benefitted from online courses while 2,500 have had physical (face-to-face) training, stating that the figure excludes those involved in micro learning Webinar series.
She declaring that the figure was unprecedented and marked a watershed in the training administration in Lagos State, adding that it represented a dramatic shift from the previous arrangement where only 3,000 public servants were trained in four years.
The commissioner asserted that the introduction of the Learning Management System, which has a variety of learning contents with over 4,000 free, self-enrollment courses and 8,000 courses from the LinkedIn Learning Library, has brought remarkable changes in the training climate in Lagos.
She pointed out that the intention was to drive radical change in the public sector to address capacity deficit, enhance efficiency and competence among civil servants.
“One significant aspect of this programme is that it has made it possible to practically phase out low training quota in the State’s civil service which used to be 3,000 staff in four years prior to this administration. For us, it is really a game changer, and I think the beauty of the process is also that we are able to mandate public servants to do certain courses,” she said.
Ponnle said the figures could be higher because some MDAs compelled their staff to undergo certain courses making reference to the Ministry of Science and Technology which since the middle of the year mandated 25 courses for their technical and non-technical staff.
She maintained that training programmes transcended the entire spectrum and hierarchy of the State Service, disclosing that some of those who have not benefitted from previous trainings have been nominated already.
The Commissioner hinted that the state government was changing the style of training to workshop/experiential learning session in the next phase of training.
The objective of that change, according to her, was to ensure that the participants really understand the key objectives of the training and were able to practicalise it immediately in their various ministries and agencies.
“So the workshop style approach is basically to ensure that trainees are able to apply concepts learn at workshop in their MDAs”. She cited a workshop on writing job descriptions, where at the end of the program participants had to go back to their MDAs and develop Job Description for the core jobs there,” she said.