Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 30th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview WG3: Public Administration Reform in CEE and CA Author(s) Ana-Madalina Potcovaru Bucharest University of Economic Studies Bucharest Romania Dragos Bigu, Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest , Bucharest, Romania Title Public Service Training: An Essential Element of the Public Service Reform in the CEE Countries File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Ana-Madalina Potcovaru Abstract A comprehensive and continuous public service training constitutes an essential element of public sector reform in CEE countries. Unfortunately, as we will show, in many cases, the public training systems cannot play this role, because they are not coherent and targeted to the real needs of public servants. The research question of this paper is what are the differences and similarities between the public service training systems in the CEE countries. By addressing this question, we will try to find some examples of good practice and designing some guiding principles, which can be used in order to improve the public training systems in these countries. In order to answer the research question, we will perform a comparative analysis between some CEE countries. In our comparative analysis, we will take into account four countries. Concerning the selection of the cases that are subject to comparison, a distinction is usually drawn between two methods: “the most similar design” and “the most different design”. The former selects cases that are mainly similar, since the latter selects cases that are substantially different. As a starting point, we will apply “the most similar design” method, by focusing only on CE countries that are EU members. Anyway, in order to identify possible solutions to improve public service training, the countries that will be analysed should capture the significant diversity of the public service training systems in this region. For this reason, we will select countries that are different from the point of view of the key features relevant for characterizing the public service training system. The comparative analysis will focus mainly on three dimensions. The first one is initial, or pre-service training, provided before recruitment and placement, to the candidates for public service positions. We will discuss what topics should be covered in pre-service training. The second dimension of the comparative study will be the way how the training needs of the public servants are identified. To be a useful tool for implementing reforms, the in-service training curricula should cover relevant topics. For this reason, good methods of training needs assessment are vital. The third dimension refers to the training institutions. We will examine what training institutions can legally and actually provide public service training. We will also analyse the degree of centralisation of the public service training system. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to submit a revised draft of my manuscript
