Civil service academy takes shape

Sunday Mail Reporter

The Public Service Commission (PSC) is finalising administrative work on integrating all Government employee training institutions into a single academy that is envisaged to impart modern skills to its workforce.

Government training institutions are usually meant to equip civil servants with new skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that are critical for them to satisfactorily discharge their mandate.

PSC has 13 training institutes in areas such as Bikita, Inyati, Highlands and Murehwa.

Overall, all these institutions will be integrated into an overarching academy that is expected to be operational by next month.

PSC Secretary Ambassador Jonathan Wutawunashe told The Sunday Mail that the 2020 Budget had already made provisions for the academy.

“Administrative and content arrangements for the envisaged Public Service Academy are being readied in anticipation of the completion of the requisite Cabinet and legal processes,” said Ambassador Wutawunashe.

Civil servants, he added, would be provided with the skills needed to achieve an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

“The idea of leveraging existing training institutes is inspired by the need for harmonised curricula and well-coordinated programmes that address performance gaps and needs within the civil service to empower that service to deliver on the imperatives of Vision 2030.”

Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) chairperson Dr Elasto Mugwadi recently claimed that civil servants need retraining as some of them, including senior officials, are still stuck in the past and failing to deliver in line with the objectives of the Second Republic. He made the observation in October at the end of hearings on access to national documentation in Bulawayo.