Thank you very much.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk about the training offered at the Canada School of Public Service.
I will start by providing a brief overview of the school's mandate. Then I will describe the relevant curriculum for this study.
The school is a common learning provider for the public service of Canada. We provide a broad range of learning opportunities for public servants. These opportunities can take the form of classroom courses open to all, online courses available 24/7, courses customized to meet organizational needs, and events to share best practices and promote government and public service priorities.
The school's objectives are to support the growth and development of public servants; to help strengthen the knowledge, skills, and competencies they need to do their jobs effectively; and to assist deputy heads in meeting the learning needs of their organizations.
We are a service delivery organization. We offer services in both official languages across Canada.
Responsibility for learning in the public service is shared. Deputy heads are responsible for determining the learning, training, and development needs of the employees within their organizations and for fixing the terms on which these activities are carried out.
The Treasury Board Secretariat and the office of the chief human resources officer are the policy leads. The school works closely with both the Treasury Board Secretariat and the office of the chief human resources officer, as well as with subject matter specialists and public servants as a whole, to identify the learning needs of public servants and to determine the right opportunities and methods for addressing those needs.
As per Treasury Board's common services policy, the school is defined as an optional service provider. We are a key delivery arm for training public service employees. Departments can choose to come to the school or they can use other services and service providers. These include in-house training strategies and contracting with the private sector.
I will be more specific now about the training the school provides in the context of this study. I will describe the curriculum from broad foundational learning to specific subject matter training to the training offered to specialists in the field.
The school provides broad foundational learning through a variety of courses and programs that help employees understand the craft of government. This training includes orientation, authority delegation, professional development, and leadership training. Many of these courses contain modules and/or content that deal with values, ethics, and people management issues. This type of training aims to provide employees with basic and essential information on how government works, on the code of values and ethics, and on the legislation, policies, and regulatory environment that govern how the public service operates.
To be more specific, I will get into the orientation program. It's one of our key foundational learning products.
This program is designed to introduce new public servants to the culture and structure of the public service and to make them understand their roles. It includes modules on the code of values and ethics and on how government works. This program is delivered using online and in-class methods. It includes a one-day classroom course touching on values and ethics and a mandatory online module called “Paving the Way: Values and Ethics Foundations for Employees”. It also includes coverage of the policy on harassment prevention and resolution and uses scenarios to help participants explore ethical issues.
An evaluation was done in 2009-2010. The results demonstrated that over 80% of the respondents were better prepared to deal with ethical situations in the workplace, to discuss ethical issues with others, and to find resources regarding values and ethics.
Another key foundational learning program is authority delegation training. This suite of courses is designed for supervisors, managers, new executives, directors general, and ADMs. It provides public servants with the essentials on the roles and responsibilities related to their delegated authorities in the fields of human resources, finance, procurement, and information management. More specifically, it contains a people management component on creating a respectful workplace. It also covers the values and ethics code and the policy on harassment prevention and resolution.
All participants who go through ADT, or authority delegation training, have to validate their knowledge through an assessment. This provides them with certification showing that they meet the knowledge standards as defined by the Treasury Board Secretariat.
The school also offers sessions to senior leaders, including newly appointed deputy ministers, to help orient them in their new role. It includes discussions of real-life cases and considers approaches to managing different situations that take into account the key accountabilities.
Over and above the foundational learning I just described, the school also offers subject-specific training to help employees and managers foster a respectful workplace with a diverse and representative workforce.
Typical objectives for this type of subject matter training are to sensitize employees to the culture of values and ethics, increase awareness of obligations and responsibilities, and understand how harassment complaints should be managed.
This curriculum includes a number of learning products.
The first is creating a respectful workplace. This course is designed for employees, supervisors, and managers. It explores potential harassment situations, what it means to create a respectful workplace, and how to promote attitudes and behaviours that will improve workplace well-being. Participants learn about personal and corporate responsibilities and have the opportunity to discuss the process and typical outcomes of harassment complaints.
The second product is an introduction to employment equity and diversity. This course, for all public servants, explores the issues, organizational requirements, and legal obligations related to the implementation of the Employment Equity Act. Participants learn creative and practical approaches to supporting a diverse workforce.
A third product deals with leading a diverse workforce. This is a leadership course that provides supervisors and managers with the opportunity to explore the emotional, intelligence, and leadership competencies required to lead diverse teams. Participants explore generational, cultural, and gender-based differences to help them lead more effectively.
A fourth product is a course on principles and practices of labour relations for supervisors and managers. It covers the policy on harassment prevention and the code of values and ethics. Other legislation includes the Canadian Human Rights Act, the Canada Labour Code, and the Employment Equity Act.
Finally, we have a course on mediating conflict. It is a course for supervisors and managers that examines how to deal with conflicts rationally and fairly by using feedback and observational techniques.
In addition to the training offered to the general public service, the school offers training aimed at subject matter specialists. This training helps develop employees' knowledge and skills to meet specific legislative, regulatory, and policy requirements, or mitigate risks related to these functions. For example, the school offers labour relations training for HR advisers as well as labour relations training for labour relations specialists. These are two different products.
Furthermore, the school offers two courses aimed specifically at people dealing with actual harassment complaints inside departments. These could be managers, values and ethics specialists, HR specialists, or others.
One course is on investigating harassment complaints. This course prepares them to conduct these investigations according to the standards of the Treasury Board Secretariat policy on prevention and resolution of harassment in the workplace.
We also have a course on managing harassment complaints. This course is designed to help participants manage a harassment complaint process in accordance with the policy. Participants follow how the complaint process unfolds step by step and learn their role in managing this process.
In conclusion, the school plays a key role in offering relevant and responsive training that helps departments create and sustain a values-based and respectful workplace. We constantly review our curriculum to ensure offerings are up to date, effective, and reflective of current legislation, policies, and public service reality.
We review our curriculum using three main methods. After each course, a learning evaluation form is filled to ensure that the objectives were met, that the instructor was understood, and that the content was up to date. If ever the results for these are not favourable, a corrective measure is then put in place immediately.
We also review our entire curriculum annually to ensure its relevance. We regularly consult our colleagues at TBS, as well as relevant community leaders and subject matter specialists, to ensure we meet their needs from a learning perspective.
To close, I want to reiterate that the school's principal role as a learning service provider is to support deputy heads in meeting their learning needs of the employees and of their organizations.
I would like to thank the committee for this opportunity, and I welcome any questions you may have.