TRIAS Telematica project | NISPAcee Information Portal

The creation of one administrative Europe is realised primarily by the National eGovernment programmes. National, Regional and Urban government agencies struggle with interoperability, standardisation , collaboration, service integration and ICT. The Universities have responded to this need by adding law topics to MBA programmes and by teaching additional ICT courses to policy makers.

The RIAS consortium propose to investigate the real training needs and prepare for one open qualification structure for higher vocational training in eGovernment in accordance with the ideas of the Copenhagen declaration. The partnership is well positioned to translate the lessons learned from current successful eGovernment projects into required skill sets, along with formulation of qualifications and necessary learning objects. The University of Bologna is a member of the Europaeum initiative whose headquarters are in Oxford. Two other partners (University of Amsterdam and Zenc) are in the centre of Regional, National and European eGovernment projects and National ministries. Greater London represented by the London Borough of Islington Education Department, ICISCO Hungary, EPMA Czech.Repubublic, QCT Romania, Virtech Bulgaria, and the European TAX offices are immediate client organisations, giving feed back on the course material and the qualification structure from the practice of day-to-day problems. All partners teach eGovernment at more than one level. UVA and ZENC lead the Project to ensure that resulting knowledge is not only reserved for high-end executive courses or for elite students. Mid level administrative manager will benefit most from an improved eGovernment curriculum, enabling him or her to improve on daily practices of current procedures. Mid-level civil servant need time to match responsibility with new ways of working to account for new operational dimensions. Europe’s administrative coherence is based on leadership of a few and hard work by many.

The first goal is to identify the training needs of change agents, project leaders and process innovators in government agencies who require to rethink eGovernment services. To use the phrase of e-Europe put forward at the eGov- eEurope advisory sub group: "someone has to govern the ‘active citizen’ of Europe 2010”. For this purpose the partners, together with the end-user organisation NISPACee (Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe) and eGem, investigate the best practices of European eGovernment initiatives at National, Local and Urban level. The most challenging task for the project is to distil transferable "nuggets of knowledge” from the recent rich experience and identify clear didactical roadmaps and targets.

The second goal is to create an infrastructure for the exchange of best practices, the exchange of project leaders and students, and the exchange of qualified people among European countries at Vocational levels. Government is not like Business. The uniform MBA or BBA formula cannot be applied to Government. It requires the study of the impact of cultural differences among European Countries on the training needs of eGovernment officers.

The project will result in 9 eGovernment modules in three area’s for three sectors:

1) Service chain integration (analysis, policies, standardisation,)
2) e-Democracy and transparency (intranet, content, interactivity)
3) Organisational transformation and e-service engineering

The sectors are (1) the Legal domain, (2) the Spatial domain and (3) Social-economic domain. They were chosen because of the already identified need (rewarding early adaptors/customers) for new vocational skills in those sectors of administration. The project will deliver a recommendation for a common qualification framework. We hope to submit the modules for comments to the 25 country representatives of e-Government in the eEurope sub-group. The European eGov CV will be investigated to create a frame of reference for the experience and training gained by students and the terms used to describe the experience. Zenc , Virtec and QCT will test the modules at Vocational level with managers in the field during courses for eGovernment customers. The universities of Amsterdam, Bologna and The Haagse Hogeschool will test the modules at University and vocational level. Training will consist of on line methods in eLearning environments and International officer-exchange on both levels. University students will benefit greatly from the input of experienced administrative managers. The Europass in eGovernment will be defined to create the platform for exchange of both students and managers who seek to avoid ‘re- inventing the wheel’. NISPACee and eGem and the NVVB will ensure lively discussion and dissemination among Europe’s National eGovernment programmes using their workshops, platforms and fora. The main Dissemination partners are the engaged New member States under coordination of Hungary.

Target Groups:

There is no specific training for civil servants in Europe concerned with eGovernment. The target groups are therefore:

Future Civil Servants of the European member states who will be responsible for the implementation of eGovernment policies in concrete services. These are the ”e-change agents” who need knowledge and skills in this area
Civil servants of European member states responsible for National eGovernment programmes who need trained colleagues who can implement programmes;
European public administration schools who need a structure for qualifications based on the Copenhagen declaration in the area of eGovernment ;

Target sectors:

Government institution/agencies in European member states in the sectors Spatial planning and Tax authorities.
Commercial clients among end –user organisations ( municipalities, RvS, RDW, crisis agencies/ depts like fire brigades, provinces, eGem).

Potential users:

Higher Vocational training organisations with a technical approach to public administration
Private companies providing training in eGovernment
E-change agents in European member states in all sectors of Government at The National and the City Governmental layers
Citizen organisations, like NVVB Nederlandse vereniging voor burgerzaken A(Dutch society of Front office administration and European platform of Front office administrative support. (see Annex, advisory board)
European Public administration schools and universities
NISPAcee : http://www.nispa.org/

Specific Aims of TRIAS
The general aim of TRIAS is to initiate a Europe wide exchange of appropriate training for civil servants in eGovernment service delivery topics within a curriculum designed to meet their needs. Specific sub-aims are:

The clarification and specification of Training needs for Future eGovernment change agents;
The analyses of the impact of cultural differences on those training need;
The creation of European Qualifications Framework for eGovernment Training modules that contribute to innovative electronic services to citizens in Europe;
The design of qualifications (terms) for at least 9 modules that are consistent with the Copenhagen declaration;
The evaluation and validation of qualifications (terms) with the following institutions or persons.

Target users (uptake):

eEurope sub group and The Eastern European Administration Network (NISPACee), eGem;
Cities, municipalities, regional officers in charge of standardisation of processes;
Citizen organisations (vereniging voor burgerzaken/Dutch Citizen association);
European Public Administration schools/institutes;
Future students in relevant sectors;
Responsible managers of National eGovernment programmes like TAX departments, Transport (RDW), administrative councils (RvS)

Design and build modules for the target sectors and the testing of these modules with a group of e-change agents from the sectors mentioned through the participating agencies who will deliver services based on this training.

Testing and translation of the modules in learning objects for training in open learning environments through a common evaluation methodology to be developed and implemented by the project partners.

H. Definition of a recommended Didactical methodology and Examination methodology to be overseen and approved by the Educational Board in the project.

Partner institutions:

The University of Amsterdam; The Leibniz center for Law, The Netherlands
ZENC - a research group and management consultancy agency addressing ICT innovation in the public sector
Haagse Hogeschool – The Hague University of Professional Education, The Hague, Netherlands
The London Borough of Islington, UK
The Hungarian Tax department of the Ministry of Finance, Budapest, Hungary
CIRSFID - research center of the University of Bologna of Philosophy of Law, Computer Science and Law, Law Informatics, Italy
EPMA, Prague, Czech Republic
QCT Connect - Romanian private company promoting IT solutions and Training for governmental sectors and academic environment
Virtech - research and software development company specializing in applications of advanced information and communication technologies, Bulgaria

Activities:

Join One week Masterclass on eGov Training Methods & Tools

July 29th-Aug 3rd 2007
The Hague, Amsterdam NL

30 programme coordinators, professors, tool developers, trainers, consultants, etc.

methods investigated:

eGov simulation game based training methods
eGov Wiki based training methods
Linear course training methods
Topic map based learning
Geographic case-support
Common European topics, like eRegistries
Common eGov transformation issues
Common design challenges & solutions

Targets for training methods & tools:

Implementors of Basic registries, e-tax, e-law, e-planning, e-permits & processes redesign, e-social security, semantic harmonisation, etc,etc in gov.