Public Service College opens

… students receive free laptops

A training college for aspiring public servants was officially opened on Wednesday, with the first batch of 60 students receiving free laptops to aid in their studies to become workers of the Government.
Named after an individual who was instrumental in the post-independence public service reform process, the Bertram Collins Public Service College is designed to train young professionals desirous of commencing a career in the modern public service.

The public service has been heavily characterised by a number of disdainful attributes such as widespread corruption, laziness, and unfriendliness – all issues that have plagued the sector for decades and stymied development in all aspects.
Together with independent robust training at the upper and middle level management, the entire public service will be transformed into an entity ready to serve the populace and the government of the day, regardless of political persuasions and on the basis of integrity, impartiality and objectivity.
During the opening ceremony, the College’s Senior Executive Director, Lawrence Paul, explained that the mandate of the institution is twofold and will be executed by highly trained staff.
“The mission of this college is simply to develop dynamic public servants with appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes to meet the everyday challenge of the workplace in the best interest of the Government of the day and society at large,” he stated.
Paul outlined that the college will design and provide a wide range of quality training based on the needs of the public service and provide development opportunities to improve the capability of individuals who will eventually be working at varying areas in the public service.
Additionally, the college will seek to provide career guidance to the students to help eliminate one of the prevailing problems in the sector which is the absence of direction and motivation within public service staff.
Overall, Paul explained that the training will aim at eradicating consistent issues in the public service.
“Over the years, the public service has been struggling to deliver services to the general public. Some of those issues are surrounding matters such as public servants who are not time oriented, rather than task oriented, resulting in lower levels of productivity, lateness, refusal of complete assignments tasked and work beyond working hours,” he outlined.
He also said public servants are not properly trained and therefore deliver meagre service, show disrespect to customers, are not career orientated and are often involved in widespread corruption.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon, in delivering the feature address during the ceremony, charged the students to strive for excellence in the execution of their functions as representatives of the executive.
“Be the kind of public service that is educated, is the engine of the executive, is innovative and understands the reality of Guyana so that the service which you provide can be efficient and effective,” Harmon expressed.
Recognising that with the arrival of trained workers into a plagued environment could pose a problem and potentially reverse all efforts, the Minister explained that training will be provided to existing upper management and middle management to ensure their professionalism is on par.
He also underscored the importance of the public service to the development of the nation, noting that Singapore having gained independence one year before Guyana, succeeded in moving its country to a first world nation by investing in the Public Sector.
The Bertram Collins Public Service College is located at Ogle, East Coast Demerara and will be providing 17 subject areas for its students, who will undergo one year of training.
The training will be divided into six months of theoretical studies and six months of on the job experiences.
Qualification for entry is a minimum of six subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Examination Certificate (CSEC) level.