ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s Academy of Public Administration has joined the Global Network of Schools of Government of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and a delegation from the academy took part in its annual meeting in Paris on July 6 before going on a study tour of other European countries. The July 6–11 trip was supported by the EU project, Civil Service Reform and Modernisation in Kazakhstan (CSR), which reported the news on its website, Supportcsr.kz.
Belonging to the OECD Global Network of Schools of Government allows the academy teaching staff to participate in joint projects, research and publications with the OECD network of schools and prepare training programmes following the OECD network’s framework. Membership is expected to improve methods of training Kazakh government officials and allow the academy to participate in discussions on proposals to improve the country’s civil service model, according to the CSR report.
Head of the Kazakh delegation, Rector of the Academy of Public Administration Bolatbek Abdrassilov, shared Kazakhstan’s experiences in modernising the academy’s teaching methods and scientific activities at the annual meeting, discussing new practice-oriented training programmes for civil servants based on competence and the organisation of research to improve the activities of state bodies. These approaches are being supported by the CSR project with the help of universities in OECD member states, the CSR said.
Modernising the civil service, international experience in implementing government reforms, improving technology and methods of training of civil servants and the role of the OECD in promoting innovation in this field were also topics at the meeting.
Following the meeting, the delegation travelled to meet representatives of public administration schools in the U.K, Italy, Poland, Lithuania and other countries, CSR project representatives report. In the U.K., they met representatives of the Major Projects Authority (MPA) at the Office of the Prime Minister to discuss civil servants’ training on project management and reviewed examples of successful British practices in implementing project management principles in the activities of state bodies. They also discussed the PRINCE2 project management system used in the U.K. and suggested it as a tool for Kazakhstan. They also expressed interest in organising training sessions for their Kazakh counterparts.
The Leadership Academy of the MPA was founded to help ensure the professional development of MPA staff and the staff of other government agencies involved in large-scale, publicly funded projects. The Leadership Academy and the Said Business School (SBS) of Oxford University are currently implementing a special 18-month programme on training for core competencies in project management. Kazakhstan’s academy and the two U.K. academies reached a preliminary agreement on experience exchange and cooperation in training civil servants on project management.
Abdrassilov also met Stephen Jackson, executive director of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education at the British Academy of Sciences, with whom he discussed the possibility of British experts taking part in improving the accreditation system of Kazakhstan’s higher education institutions.
