Dechen Dolkar  

The Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) will do away with a one-year postgraduate diploma (PGD) course from the 2023 intake onwards.

According to RCSC the Post-Graduate Diploma in Public Administration (PGDPA) and Post-Graduate Diploma in Finance Management (PGDFM) will be replaced by training for civil servants throughout their careers in a very structured and strategic manner.

All BCSE-selected candidates will be placed directly, except for PGD in education. However, the PGD in National Law (PGDNL) will continue.

The official from the Commission said that in the future, a pool of lawyers would be from JSW School of Law where the PGDNL course is embedded.  However, those undergoing LLB outside of Bhutan will continue to undergo PGDNL course.

The BSCE-selected candidates will undergo the Foundational In-service Training (FIT) programme, followed by the service-specific or immersion programmes.

An official from the Commission said that FIT and service-specific or immersion programmes would emphasise entrenching civil service-wide and cross-cutting competencies as per the Leadership Capability Framework (LCF) and Competency-Based Framework (CBF).

The official said that the programmes would be a journey of introspection, self-discovery, awareness, and assimilation supplemented with both asynchronous and synchronous learning paradigms and strategies.

In addition, the recruits will also be trained on the core functional or job-specific competencies by the respective agencies based on the requirements.

The place of posting will be based on BCSE merit ranking.

According to the Commission, the methodology of the training would also see a substantial change with synchronous and asynchronous learning in digital classrooms for optimal time utilisation.

“The time in a conventional classroom setting will be very limited with most learnings taking place independently,” the official said.

The official said that the capacity development programme would also have a component for assessment to spot and groom talents. “In this way, we hope that the training will be more purposeful and provide opportunities for our officers for lifelong learning and upskilling.”

In view of creating a dynamic and agile civil service with cutting-edge competencies supplemented with progressive assessments, the RCSC decided that there has to be a fundamental shift in our training programmes from academic to core skills development aligned to the required workplace competencies.

Furthermore, in order to build a systemic approach toward enhancing leadership and management competencies at all position levels, the RCSC has introduced the Leadership Development and Assessment Programme wherein training will be conducted at both RIM and RIGSS for various position levels.