THE Department of the Public Service is continuing to build capacity among senior personnel by providing training through the UWI Open Campus.
According to Betty Blanchard – Deputy Permanent Secretary (Ag), Department of the Public Service, “The department of the Public Service has collaborated with the University of the West Indies to provide training in the area of project management to our senior officers; that is permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries and other senior officers. Currently there are a number of projects being undertaken in the Public Service and we saw the need to enhance the skills of our officers, in order for them to execute their tasks in a more efficient and effective manner.”
The training is being facilitated by Betty Combie, Facilitator of Project Management, UWI Open Campus who emphasised the importance of project management skills.
“Project management is a very important body of knowledge, I cannot stress that enough,” she said. “I like to use the example of a wedding versus a marriage. So with a wedding, it’s a project and so project management comes into play. There is also another important body of knowledge; quality management is related to operational work. So the wedding is the project but the marriage is operational work. So you really need to know those two bodies of knowledge and it’s the same thing in the workplace. You have projects, which have a beginning and an end, and you get a unique result, but you have this ongoing repetitive work and that is operational work. So this project is focusing on the project work and how do you manage the project work effectively and efficiently. Students, first of all, they will be involved in preparing project charters and project plans. So they should then be able to analyze projects and decide what went wrong and what went right, which should make them more competent, as far as managing projects.”
Programme Officer at the UWI Open Campus, EulampiaPolius Springer, applauds government for their collaboration and has extended the initiative to private organisations.
“We are the University of the West Indies,” EulampiaPolius Springer expressed. “We belong to the government and the people of St. Lucia. The government has started, and it is a step in the right direction, and we are hoping that more organisations can come to us, with the view of us assisting as much as possible with training, especially in continuing professional education areas.”
Upon successful completion of the project management course, participants will receive a UWI Open Campus Saint Lucia Certificate of Achievement.