To improve their work competencies, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) urged government officials and employees to take advantage of online learning during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Issuing a statement, the CSC on Tuesday, Feb. 23, underscored the importance for civil servants to “regularly enrich their knowledge or upgrade their competencies” in order to meet expected performance levels and to continue delivering effective public service.
“Agencies are also responsible for establishing a learning and development (L&D) program that would address competency gaps in the workforce,” the CSC said.
CSC noted that the pandemic has driven many organizations to offer webinars and online training courses - making learning relatively more accessible, convenient, and affordable.
As a training institution for the public sector, the CSC has seen the need to fast-track the introduction of its e-learning program due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since 2020, CSC has also been offering online courses.
Its Civil Service Institute (CSI) and Regional Offices are now using videoconferencing apps and social media to give webinars on civil service policies for government agencies - some of which are even free of charge.
Civil servants can also take relevant courses outside what the CSC offers.
As of October 2020, there are currently 37 private learning and development institutions (ALDI) accredited by the CSI to complement the CSC’s L&D interventions for the bureaucracy.
In an effort to give civil servants a wider range of options, the CSC also recognizes government L&D institutions, non-accredited private institutions offering highly technical/specialized training, internationally-acclaimed local institutions, those recognized by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) as a Center of Excellence or Center of Development, foreign institutions that offer L&D for scholarship purposes or for personal advancement, and others that partner with the CSC in building capabilities of civil servants.
The CSI regularly updates its list of ALDIs, which may be accessed from its website at csi.csc.gov.ph.