Public-sector leadership training

A rapidly changing operating environment calls for a new kind of flexibility, openness to change and unity from public administration. Sitra’s “Renewing the public sector – enabling management” training strengthened the ability of public-sector leaders to handle challenges and supported the public sector in the reform of its social role.

What did we do?

To meet the needs of senior management of ministries and agencies, Sitra developed a training programme that included six modules and a total of 11 contact teaching days.

The themes of the training modules were:

• global phenomena and the public sector’s ability to renew
• new operating models for complex phenomena
• alternative systematic approaches from around the world (international study trip)
• from public administration to service
• leading people and renewing the leadership culture
• putting new practices and lessons learned from experiments into practice.

Throughout 2017 and 2018, we held six courses that attracted 140 senior civil servants from central government. The training groups were compiled cross-governmentally so that each course included representatives from different ministries and agencies. In addition to expert presentations, the training included workshops, practical interim assignments that support learning, peer sparring and practice experiments related to the current challenges of administration and enabling leadership.

The training had a dual focus: 1) building knowledge and skills for the future; and 2) enabling leaders to create the future together.

Who was involved?

The steering groups from all of the 12 ministries and the senior management from a few agencies participated in the training. The following agencies were involved: Kela, Finnish National Board of Education, the National Audit Office of Finland, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority and the Population Register Centre.

Sitra’s team developed the content of the training. A large group of Finnish and international experts were also involved in the implementation via keynote speeches and training sessions.

What’s next?

Since 2019, the training for civil servants has been led by the Ministry of Finance and organised by HAUS Kehittämiskeskus Oy.

The “Renewing the public sector – enabling management” programme represented a vast investment in Finnish society by Sitra. It continued our work over the decades as a provider of challenging training programmes for key people in society.