The University of the West Indies (UWI) St Augustine campus and the Ministry of Public Administration have joined forces to revolutionize Trinidad and Tobago’s public service. Through a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed recently, the two entities are set to enhance the efficiency and responsiveness of the public sector.
With a focus on modernizing the Public Service Academy, which is entrusted with training the country’s 60,000 public officers, this collaboration is poised to make a significant impact. The initial phase of the three-year MOU will target 3,000 public officers at various levels, concentrating on key areas such as policy development, leadership, and conflict management.
Prof Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, the principal of UWI, emphasized the campus’s long-standing commitment to national development through collaborations with ministries. With more than three decades of experience in providing training to the public sector, UWI offers formal degree programs in public administration, tailored leadership workshops, and a Certificate in Public Administration that has been a requirement for promotion in the public service for over 30 years.
Antoine outlined the goals of the initiative, aiming to create a more agile, client-focused, proactive, results-oriented, and performance-driven public service. The hope is to equip public officers with the necessary skills to tackle modern challenges in the public sector.
Through this partnership, UWI and the Ministry of Public Administration will review needs analysis data and develop proposals for continuous, adaptable training interventions. Minister of Public Administration Allyson West highlighted the importance of this program in providing long-term training opportunities for public officers, addressing the shortfalls in public sector training in the past decade.
Instead of restructuring the Public Service Academy, West believes leveraging existing institutions like UWI, which already offer relevant courses, is a more effective approach. By enhancing the productivity of the public sector through this MOU, both entities are optimistic about the positive impact this collaboration will have on the overall efficiency and responsiveness of Trinidad and Tobago’s public service.
