Public administration consists of ordinary people on responsible and demanding tasks. They make our life easier and take upon themselves the obligation to always be ready to solve challenges for the benefit of citizens.

The speed of processing requests is crucial. In order for everything to run as efficiently as possible, all actors in the decision-making chain must have advanced knowledge and modern skills. This especially applies to officials in higher positions, and the reform and modernization starts with them.

The National Academy for Public Administration, through the project “Strengthening Professional Capacities of Senior Civil Servants in Serbia” financed by the European Union, strives to continuously build and improve the knowledge and skills of civil servants as the main actors of reform process.

Two new training cycles for the “Honeycomb” module and the “Fundamentals – essential issues” module bill begin this fall. Training programs for newly appointed, as well as experiences civil servants foresee a modern approach, intensive work, an innovative way of implementing the training itself, and above all, the participation of accredited lecturers with great professional experience and enthusiasm to work. In addition to training aimed at improving knowledge and skills in key areas for public administration, other forms of professional development are available to participants, such as “coaching” sessions, development of an individual development path plan, and study visits.

During the two years of implementation of project activities, the National Public Administration Academy, together with the project team, managed to build a strong network of senior civil servants, who have nothing but praise for the project and the training they attended.

Aleksandra Hranjec, Assistant Director at the Institute for Social Insurance, is one of the training participants.

“The dynamics of the program are quite demanding and sometimes, due to numerous daily obligations, extra effort should be made to achieve all the tasks planned. But after each completed cycle, i.e. individual lectures, I felt satisfaction and the impression that I had learned and adopted a lot. The trainings are well designed, and the lecturers are extremely professional. I find the acquired knowledge very useful and it will certainly benefit my future work (and life). The trainings allowed me to meet and get to know good and quality people, colleagues from the public administration who, due to the nature of their work, I would probably never have met. I believe that the NAPA trainings are an important factor in connecting experts in public administration”, said Hranjec.

Training program for managers in state bodies: “Fundamentals” and “Honeycombs”

“Fundamentals – essential issues” is a training program intended for newly appointed civil servants. The main goal of the program is to provide important knowledge and skills and prepare civil servants for a new role. The program is actually a guide in finding answers to the questions – where I work, with whom I work, how I work and how to achieve good results.

“Honeycombs” aims to enable continuous personal and professional development of employees. The training program consists of different modules (learning packages) and is represented by a honeycomb that illustrates the idea that different modules, tailored to the specific needs of senior civil servants, are combined to meet the needs of participants. The program offers the possibility of attending only those modules that the civil servant chooses according to his/her interest, with a strong individual approach and flexibility.

The National Academy for Public Administration invites all senior civil servants to apply through the LMS (https://lms.napa.gov.rs/)  platform to become part of a large community.

So far, Serbia has received almost four billion euros in grants from the European funds, of which as much as 215 million euros are allocated from pre-accession IPA funds for managing public finance and improving the work of local self-governments and independent institutions. Public administration reform is one of the most important elements of Serbia’s EU accession process, and in 2014 it was also put at the forefront of the negotiations. A modern and professional public administration is a key element for every EU member state in order to effectively implement laws and transparently manage EU funds.