Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

ISE03/18-19

Subject:

public service, training, civil servants, learning

The increasingly fast-changing policy environment has challenged the adaptability of the governments across the world. They need to address and respond to the public's demand for new and/or improved public services in a more efficient and effective way, and that requires the provision of sufficient training to keep the civil service abreast of the latest knowledge and skills required for effective governance.
In Hong Kong, individual bureaux/departments ("B/Ds") offer vocational training to meet job-specific requirements. Meanwhile, the Civil Service Training and Development Institute ("CSTDI") of the Civil Service Bureau focuses on training programmes that meet the common training needs of civil servants^{1Legend symbol denoting As at September 2018, the strength of civil service in Hong Kong was some 172 600.}, ^{2Legend symbol denoting While CSTDI's training programmes are mainly for government employees, including civil servants and non-civil service contract staff, it also accepts a very limited number of staff of non-government organizations or public bodies every year to join some of its leadership and management training programmes for middle to senior level civil servants. In 2017, CSTDI organized programmes, seminars and workshops for about 67 200 trainees.} on areas of senior executive development, national studies and training, etc. It also formulates policies on training and performance management, provides consultancy services to B/Ds on human resource management, and promotes a culture of continuous learning in the civil service. In recent years, CSTDI has been promoting its e-learning portal, CLC Plus, as a means to sustain civil servants' learning beyond classroom. CSTDI is headed by a Deputy Secretary for the Civil Service and its major functions are primarily delivered by Training Officers.^{3Legend symbol denoting The strength of CSTDI totalled 107 as at 2 October 2018. Among them, 50 were staff from the Training Officer Grade, while 57 were staff from General Grades. Most of the Training Officers are working in Civil Service Bureau and some are deployed to work in other B/Ds. They are responsible for providing training and development services to civil servants, and providing consultancy and advisory services to B/Ds on human resource development.}
In August 2017, the Chief Executive proposed to establish a civil service college in Hong Kong.^{4Legend symbol denoting See GovHK (2017).} At the meeting of the Panel on Public Service in May 2018, the Government further revealed that the proposed college aims to enhance training for civil servants, facilitate their understanding of the Mainland's development, enhance their awareness of international affairs, and promote international exchanges within civil service.^{5Legend symbol denoting See Civil Service Bureau (2018).} Most recently, the Chief Executive announced in her 2018 Policy Address that the Government would set up a civil service training advisory board to prepare for the development of the new civil service college to be completed in 2026.
Overseas places such as Singapore and Canada have established their own training institutes for civil servants, known as the Civil Service College Singapore ("CSC") and the Canada School of Public Service ("CSPS") respectively. Probably reflecting the effectiveness of CSC and CSPS, Singapore ranked first in "government effectiveness" in the World Bank's 2017 Worldwide Governance Indicators^{6Legend symbol denoting The Worldwide Governance Indicators, conducted by the World Bank, report aggregate and individual governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories under six dimensions of governance, namely: (a) Voice and Accountability; (b) Political Stability and Absence of Violence; (c) Government Effectiveness; (d) Regulatory Quality; (e) Rule of Law; and (f) Control of Corruption.} and Canada topped the 2017 International Civil Service Effectiveness Index.^{7Legend symbol denoting The International Civil Service Effectiveness Index is jointly developed by the University of Oxford and the Institute for Government. It covers 31 countries across Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australasia to assess civil service effectiveness based on what the civil service delivers and how the functions are delivered.} This issue of Essentials studies the civil service training institutes in Singapore and Canada, and highlights their salient features that Hong Kong may take into account when establishing its civil service college.

Civil Service College Singapore ("CSC")

Inaugurated on 29 April 1993, CSC initially offered governance, policy and leadership development courses to groom top civil servants. It merged with the Civil Service Institute^{8Legend symbol denoting The Civil Service Institute was established in 1971 as the Staff Training Institute to provide formal training for civil servants. Before that, on-the-job training was provided on an ad-hoc basis that was contingent on the capacity and resources of the various government departments and ministries. In 1975, the Staff Training Institute was renamed the Civil Service Staff Development Institute, shortened to the Civil Service Institute in 1979.} in 1996 to create a central training institute for all grades of civil servants and help the civil service achieve its training goal. Before the merger, the Civil Service Institute was tasked with conducting training for staff in the general executive and clerical service.
The merged entity retains the name of "Civil Service College". In 2001, CSC became a self-financing statutory board funded largely by the training fees received from its client organizations in the public sector,^{9Legend symbol denoting CSC derives its revenue primarily from training fees receivable and government operating grants, which accounted for 64.4% and 26.1% of its total revenue in FY2017.} such as ministries, statutory boards and organs of state (e.g. the judiciary and the parliament).^{10Legend symbol denoting According to CSC's email reply dated 17 October 2018, the breakdown of the participants of CSC's training programmes is generally aligned to the proportion of public officers from ministries, statutory boards and organs of state. Around 50% of the participants are from statutory boards, 35% from ministries, and 15% are public officers from organs of state.} Established under the Civil Service College Act, CSC enjoys a considerable degree of administrative autonomy and flexibility in its staffing. For example, it has greater independence in designing and developing training programmes and the flexibility to recruit trainers and staff with the requisite competencies and capacities at the prevailing rates of remuneration.^{11Legend symbol denoting See Parliament of Singapore (2001).}

Organizational structure of CSC

CSC currently has some 280 employees working in (a) four institutes dealing with governance and policy; leadership and organization development; public administration and management; and public sector leadership respectively; and (b) an international department offering courses for overseas civil servants to learn from the public service's best practice in Singapore and promoting international cooperation.
As with all statutory boards, CSC reports to a parent ministry which is the Public Service Division ("PSD") within the Prime Minister's Office. The day-to-day operation of CSC is overseen by a management team headed by the Dean and Chief Executive Officer, who in turn reports to a board of directors. The board is chaired by the Permanent Secretary of PSD, and consists of members from both public and private sectors with diversified backgrounds such as senior civil servants, business leaders and academics.

Mission of CSC

CSC plays a pivotal role in nurturing and developing the public service of Singapore. Its mission is to develop a first-class public service through measures such as (a) providing training for the development of officers in the public sector and equipping them with the appropriate values, workplace skills and management tools; (b) promoting lifelong learning amongst officers in the public sector; and (c) nurturing shared ethos and perspectives that are in sync with the emerging developments and trends within the civil service.

Training design and delivery

CSC offers more than 400 training programmes across 17 topics a year, ranging from leadership and management, data analytics and human resource management to law and public finance.^{12Legend symbol denoting Based on the email reply from CSC dated 10 October 2018, CSC's training programmes are only opened to employees of public service. In 2017-2018, CSC trained 34 418 local participants and 3 491 international participants.} CSC has involved external experts in designing and reviewing its programme curricular through the setting up of a Learning Innovation Advisory Panel made up of experts with experience and knowledge in implementing and re-designing training products.
CSC's training programmes are conducted in-house by its trainers and consultants and government agencies, or sourced from external providers. Some of CSC's trainers are senior public officers, such as permanent secretaries and deputy secretaries of ministries and chief executives of statutory boards, who share insights on governance, policy and leadership with junior colleagues. There are also invited practitioners from the private, non-profit and academic sectors who provide useful non-government perspectives.
A couple of performance indicators point to the positive learning impact of CSC's training programmes. In 2016-2017, feedback from supervisors of participants from a sampling of key programmes indicated that 86% of participants had applied their learning to produce positive results at the workplace.^{13Legend symbol denoting See Civil Service College (2017).} In 2017-2018, more than 90% of the participants were satisfied with CSC's training programmes.

Other services of CSC

In addition to training courses, CSC also undertakes researches on areas such as governance and leadership development, and provides consultancy to client organizations in the public sector on operational problems.^{14Legend symbol denoting Based on the email reply from CSC dated 10 October 2018, CSC's consultancy services only serve public organizations on issues of, including but not limited to, learning and development, organization change and leadership. In 2017-2018, CSC completed 64 consultancy projects to assist organizations in change management and service revamp, as well as publishing 106 research papers on a diverse range of topics including public policy, governance and public administration.} CSC considers that training, research and consultancy should constitute one integrated process. In particular, research and consultancy contribute to the effectiveness of the College, in terms of identifying the needs of trainees, selecting the target group, deciding on the nature of the training programmes, and improving the relevance of the training programmes to the needs of client organizations.
Apart from classroom training, CSC currently operates a mobile learning app and started plans in 2017 to develop a whole-of-government digital learning platform in three years. CSC is also exploring innovative learning delivery options such as the use of virtual reality in classroom training to make better use of classroom time and improve learning outcomes.

Canada School of Public Service ("CSPS")

As the millennium approached, the Canadian government set a national agenda in which the federal government was to be a place of continuous learning of a skilled workforce. In 2003, the federal Parliament passed the Public Service Modernization Act to create CSPS as the common learning service provider for public service of Canada. CSPS officially opened in April 2004 through amalgamation of the following three institutes each with a history and contribution to training of public service of Canada: the Canadian Centre for Management Development, Training and Development Canada, and Language Training Canada.^{15Legend symbol denoting The Canadian Centre for Management Development was created in the 1980s for training and development of executives, whereas Training and Development Canada was established in 1990 to provide training for functional communities, composing of federal public service employees who share common work purposes, functions and professional interests (e.g. human resources, information technology, finance). For Language Training Canada, it was established in 1964 to provide training in Canada's two official languages, French and English.}
CSPS operates as a departmental corporation^{16Legend symbol denoting In Canada, public organizations exercising limited powers (notably those focusing on service delivery), as well as those exercising powers deemed inappropriate for ministerial direction, are typically not placed under direct ministerial control. These non-ministerial organizations, including departmental corporations like CSPS, are often established by Acts of Parliament and largely financed through parliamentary appropriations and typically have a governing council or other form of management board.} within the portfolio of the Treasury Board. Its status as a departmental corporation affords the School a degree of administrative autonomy, such as the authority to retain those unspent revenue brought forward from previous fiscal year. Currently, CSPS is funded largely by appropriated government funding as voted by Parliament.^{17Legend symbol denoting In 2014-2015, CSPS changed its business model to be financed mainly by government appropriations at no charge to learners. Before that, it had operated under a cost-recovery model which offered classroom-based general courses on a wide range of popular subjects and customized training developed for federal institutions.} In 2018-2019, CSPS budgets for a total expenditure of C$81 million (HK$481 million), of which 79% is financed by voted appropriations and 21% by re-spendable revenue and the government's contributions to the CSPS employee benefit plans.

Organizational structure of CSPS

With headquarters in Ottawa and offices in 14 cities across Canada, CSPS currently employed 595 full-time employees in 2018-2019. CSPS is headed by a President who has supervision over and direction of the work and staff of the School. The School's work is carried out by two branches, namely the Learning Programs Branch and the Corporate Services Branch.
CSPS reports to the President of the Treasury Board. It is also overseen by an advisory committee and its sub-committee made up of deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers appointed by the Clerk of Privy Council,^{18Legend symbol denoting The Clerk of the Privy Council, who is also secretary to the Cabinet, is the head of the civil service. He or she is appointed by the Prime Minister and is responsible for the overall management of the civil service.} representing a broad cross-section of federal organizations to facilitate engagement and responsiveness.

Mission of CSPS

CSPS has a legislative mandate under the Canada School of Public Service Act to provide a range of learning activities to build individual and organizational capacity and management excellence across 93 federal departments and agencies.

Training design and delivery

In CSPS, learning programmes encompass four common curriculum streams to support public servants at all stages of their careers. These comprise (a) foundational development training for newly-recruited employees; (b) specialized development training for functional specialists in information technology, human resources or finance; (c) transformational skills training for civil servants to adapt to change and to drive efficiencies and public service reform; and (d) management and leadership development for managers and executives to support performance and success at key career transitions. Except for selected events such as Armchair Discussions^{19Legend symbol denoting Armchair Discussions provide public servants with an opportunity to interact with some of the most accomplished professionals and academics in their fields, as well as leaders from across the public service. The events may occasionally open for public participation.} allowing for public participation, the majority of the School's offerings are only available to Canadian federal public servants.^{20Legend symbol denoting According to CSPS's email reply dated 7 November 2018, the School did not track the departments and agencies classifications from which the participating public servants came from.} In 2017-2018, CSPS offered 367 classroom and online learning products.
CSPS receives guidance and advice from the Treasury Board and the advisory committee regarding the design and priorities of the training curriculum. The School's inter-departmental Enterprise Editorial Board, comprising of federal civil servants and some special advisors who are retired executives from the civil service, also meets regularly to provide feedback and advice on the new curriculum as well as insight into the learning needs of learners and organizations.
On programme delivery, CSPS recruits instructors from across government, academia and the private sector to deliver training.^{21Legend symbol denoting In 2018, CSPS had 165 instructors from the civil service. Among them, 32 were loaned on a full-time basis from other departments to the School for up to three years, and 133 were civil servants from other departments occasionally delivering training. The School also hires experts on a contractual basis from the private sector and academia as‎ required. However, the School does not keep record of the numbers of instructor hired from the private sector and academia.} These include former senior civil servants who teach specific training courses, and a group of former ministerial-level civil servants who acts as teachers and mentors for training the senior executives of civil service.
CSPS monitors client satisfaction with its learning products through a variety of feedback methods, including learning evaluation results, periodic classroom observation, and meetings with client departments, among others. In 2017-2018, 91% of the participants assessed could apply what they learned from CSPS on the job and 88% were satisfied with the learning programmes.

Other service of CSPS

In May 2016, CSPS introduced a flexible, easy-to-access online platform called GCcampus to shift the focus from classroom learning that has been the dominant method of delivery within the School. Built on the School's previous online tool, GCcampus has become a portal to a diverse collection of learning resources, including online courses, virtual classrooms, peer and social learning, videos, webcasts, job aids, workshops and other learning events.^{22Legend symbol denoting Canada employed some 274 000 federal public servants in 2018, of which nearly 160 000 accessed the GCcampus and other learning products during 2017-2018.} All of these resources are available anytime and anywhere at no costs to individual learners.

Concluding remarks

Training is increasingly recognized as an essential avenue for equipping civil servants with the knowledge and skills to address issues arising from today's fast-changing policy environment. However, the effectiveness of civil service training institutes depends to a large extent on how they are managed. Both CSC and CSPS share some common features which may serve as a point for reference. These include:

(a)	Enabling legislation and financial autonomy: Both CSC and CSPS are established by legislation which provides them with a clear mandate and mission. They also enjoy a considerable degree of financial autonomy. Apart from getting support from government funding, CSC can receive income for its training courses and consultancy services whereas CSPS can retain upspent revenue brought forward from previous fiscal years;
(b)	Relationship with the government: Unlike CSTDI which is a division under the Civil Service Bureau, CSC and CSPS are given a large degree of organizational autonomy while at the same time maintain ties with the government. For example, both CSC and CSPS can independently design and develop training programmes and recruit trainers from across government, academia and the private sector. Meanwhile, as they are overseen by a board chaired by or consisted of government officials, this would facilitate their responsiveness to government priorities and needs of civil servants; and
(c)	Relevance of the training programmes: Both CSC and CSPS focus on practitioner-based training with trainers comprising senior public officers and/or practitioners from the private, non-profit and academic sectors. This would ensure that the training curriculum matches the skills required for effective and efficient policy administration and governance. In addition to the above, it is noteworthy that CSC also conducts research and consultancy on top of providing training programmes. This feature helps CSC design courses that meet the current and future needs of its client organizations.

Prepared by LEUNG Chi-kit
Research Office
Information Services Division
Legislative Council Secretariat
14 December 2018

Endnotes:

1.	As at September 2018, the strength of civil service in Hong Kong was some 172 600.
2.	While CSTDI's training programmes are mainly for government employees, including civil servants and non-civil service contract staff, it also accepts a very limited number of staff of non-government organizations or public bodies every year to join some of its leadership and management training programmes for middle to senior level civil servants. In 2017, CSTDI organized programmes, seminars and workshops for about 67 200 trainees.
3.	The strength of CSTDI totalled 107 as at 2 October 2018. Among them, 50 were staff from the Training Officer Grade, while 57 were staff from General Grades. Most of the Training Officers are working in Civil Service Bureau and some are deployed to work in other B/Ds. They are responsible for providing training and development services to civil servants, and providing consultancy and advisory services to B/Ds on human resource development.
4.	See GovHK (2017).
5.	See Civil Service Bureau (2018).
6.	The Worldwide Governance Indicators, conducted by the World Bank, report aggregate and individual governance indicators for over 200 countries and territories under six dimensions of governance, namely: (a) Voice and Accountability; (b) Political Stability and Absence of Violence; (c) Government Effectiveness; (d) Regulatory Quality; (e) Rule of Law; and (f) Control of Corruption.
7.	The International Civil Service Effectiveness Index is jointly developed by the University of Oxford and the Institute for Government. It covers 31 countries across Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australasia to assess civil service effectiveness based on what the civil service delivers and how the functions are delivered.
8.	The Civil Service Institute was established in 1971 as the Staff Training Institute to provide formal training for civil servants. Before that, on-the-job training was provided on an ad-hoc basis that was contingent on the capacity and resources of the various government departments and ministries. In 1975, the Staff Training Institute was renamed the Civil Service Staff Development Institute, shortened to the Civil Service Institute in 1979.
9.	CSC derives its revenue primarily from training fees receivable and government operating grants, which accounted for 64.4% and 26.1% of its total revenue in FY2017.
10.	According to CSC's email reply dated 17 October 2018, the breakdown of the participants of CSC's training programmes is generally aligned to the proportion of public officers from ministries, statutory boards and organs of state. Around 50% of the participants are from statutory boards, 35% from ministries, and 15% are public officers from organs of state.
11.	See Parliament of Singapore (2001).
12.	Based on the email reply from CSC dated 10 October 2018, CSC's training programmes are only opened to employees of public service. In 2017-2018, CSC trained 34 418 local participants and 3 491 international participants.
13.	See Civil Service College (2017).
14.	Based on the email reply from CSC dated 10 October 2018, CSC's consultancy services only serve public organizations on issues of, including but not limited to, learning and development, organization change and leadership. In 2017-2018, CSC completed 64 consultancy projects to assist organizations in change management and service revamp, as well as publishing 106 research papers on a diverse range of topics including public policy, governance and public administration.
15.	The Canadian Centre for Management Development was created in the 1980s for training and development of executives, whereas Training and Development Canada was established in 1990 to provide training for functional communities, composing of federal public service employees who share common work purposes, functions and professional interests (e.g. human resources, information technology, finance). For Language Training Canada, it was established in 1964 to provide training in Canada's two official languages, French and English.
16.	In Canada, public organizations exercising limited powers (notably those focusing on service delivery), as well as those exercising powers deemed inappropriate for ministerial direction, are typically not placed under direct ministerial control. These non-ministerial organizations, including departmental corporations like CSPS, are often established by Acts of Parliament and largely financed through parliamentary appropriations and typically have a governing council or other form of management board.
17.	In 2014-2015, CSPS changed its business model to be financed mainly by government appropriations at no charge to learners. Before that, it had operated under a cost-recovery model which offered classroom-based general courses on a wide range of popular subjects and customized training developed for federal institutions.
18.	The Clerk of the Privy Council, who is also secretary to the Cabinet, is the head of the civil service. He or she is appointed by the Prime Minister and is responsible for the overall management of the civil service.
19.	Armchair Discussions provide public servants with an opportunity to interact with some of the most accomplished professionals and academics in their fields, as well as leaders from across the public service. The events may occasionally open for public participation.
20.	According to CSPS's email reply dated 7 November 2018, the School did not track the departments and agencies classifications from which the participating public servants came from.
21.	In 2018, CSPS had 165 instructors from the civil service. Among them, 32 were loaned on a full-time basis from other departments to the School for up to three years, and 133 were civil servants from other departments occasionally delivering training. The School also hires experts on a contractual basis from the private sector and academia as‎ required. However, the School does not keep record of the numbers of instructor hired from the private sector and academia.
22.	Canada employed some 274 000 federal public servants in 2018, of which nearly 160 000 accessed the GCcampus and other learning products during 2017-2018.

References:

1.	Canada School of Public Service. (2016) Report to Parliament 2011-2016.
2.	Canada School of Public Service. (2017) Departmental Results Report 2016-2017.
3.	Canada School of Public Service. (2018) Departmental Results Report 2017-2018.
4.	Civil Service Bureau. (2003) Reorganization of the Civil Service Training and Development Institute. LC Paper No. CB(1)551/03-04(03).
5.	Civil Service Bureau. (2018) An Overview of Training and Development for Civil Servants. LC Paper No. CB(4) 1079/17-18(06).
6.	Civil Service College. (2017) 2016-2017 Annual Report.
7.	Civil Service College. (2018) 2017-2018 Annual Report.
8.	GovHK. (2017) Civil service college broached, 3 August.
9.	House of Commons of Canada. (2003) Hansard, Vol. 138, No. 60, 2nd Session, 37th Parliament, 14 February.
10.	Legislative Council Secretariat. (2017) Minutes of policy briefing cum meeting of the Panel on Public Service. 16 October. LC Paper No. CB(4)352/17-18.
11.	Low, J. (2018) Inception Point: The Use of Learning and Development to Reform the Singapore Public Service.
12.	Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2017) National Schools of Government: building civil service capacity.
13.	Parliament of Singapore. (2001) Second Reading of Civil Service College Bill.
14.	Prescott, F. (2014) Research and Curriculum Development at National Schools of Government. University of Victoria, British Columbia.
15.	Tessema, et al. (2007) Managing civil service training institutions: What lessons can countries learn from Singapore? International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, vol. 7, nos. 3/4, pp. 300-318.
16.	University of Oxford. (2017) The International Civil Service Effectiveness Index.
17.	World Bank. (2018) Worldwide Governance Indicators.
18.	黃湛利：《香港公務員制度》，中華書局2016年2月版。

^{Essentials are compiled for Members and Committees of the Legislative Council. They are not legal or other professional advice and shall not be relied on as such. Essentials are subject to copyright owned by The Legislative Council Commission (The Commission). The Commission permits accurate reproduction of Essentials for non-commercial use in a manner not adversely affecting the Legislative Council, provided that acknowledgement is made stating the Research Office of the Legislative Council Secretariat as the source and one copy of the reproduction is sent to the Legislative Council Library. The paper number of this issue of Essentials is ISE03/18-19.}