Philipsburg (DCOMM):--- For the past two weeks, about 800 civil servants have been taking part in a one-day course at the University of St. Maarten.
The name of the course is "Country Status: The New Organizational in Development," funded by the funding agency USONA and executed by the Development/Government Administration Academy (Bestuursacademie).
Organized by the Department of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations (BAK), the course is mandatory for and is part of Government's efforts to improve the civil service core skills and knowledge.
The course consisted of eight 20-30 minute lectures on the following topics: New State, Council of Ministers, the Governor, Social Economic Council (SER), Council of Advice, Parliament, Ombudsman, General Audit Chamber.
Each organization or institution provided information about their organization, tasks and responsibilities, and examples so that the civil servants, ranking from general secretaries to secretary general of ministries, can acquire concrete knowledge on the changes to Government since St. Maarten became country on October 10, 2010.
The main objective of the training:
- Knowledge of, and practical insight into the change of the organization's acquired by the target group.
- The target group can translate the knowledge and skills to their own workplace.
- Support for the recently implemented new organizational structure.
Marcel Gumbs was the moderator, and lectured twice on the New State and the Council of Ministers. The other institutions mentioned above each sent a representative to inform the participants during the morning session. At the end of the morning session, participants completed a short quiz, and continued onto the afternoon session, when participants were divided into 5 groups of twenty people.
During the afternoon workshop, the trainers, in an interactive way, concentrated on: customer service, communication, and teamwork.
The course was a useful exercise to improve the working of the government apparatus, according to officials.
