OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION COORDINATES FIRST EVER VANUATU WORKFORCE PLANNING TRAINING FROM 9TH JULY – 11TH JULY

PORT VILA, 11 JULY 2024. The Office Public Service Commission coordinated a first ever and successful three (3) days workforce planning training on Iririki Island from the 9th of July to 11th of July 2024.

The workforce planning training is one of the first bilateral exchange program after the OPSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Public Service Commission at the beginning of the   year. The MoU was a milestone achieved by the OPSC as part of its reform programs and vision to improve Vanuatu’s public sector workforce.

This training featured Dr. Ayeesha Abbasi, Assistant Director Workforce Strategy & Planning from APSC Centre of Excellence for Workforce Planning and Ms. Faafetai Vaevaina, Principal Human Resource Officer from Samoa Public Service Commission as presenters during the course.

50 Participants of the workforce planning training comprised of Human resource officers, executive officers, managers from government line agencies and officers from the OPSC.

Topics that were covered during the training centred around Establishing workforce planning, Workforce segmentation and Labour Market, Storytelling with Data and Implementing Workforce planning initiatives. These topics will enable the participants to establish a workforce planning for each of their respective ministries or departments, understanding the civil service workforce, understand the use of workforce data for future business needs and valuing the importance of building accountability and developing action plans for implementation.

In his official remarks, the Chairman of the Public Service Commission Mr. Martin Mahe emphasized the reform programs taking place at the OPSC to strengthen gaps in the human resource space.

“I commend the Australian Public Service Commission and its workforce planning team’s assistance in expediting this dialogue with the pool of executive officers, human resource managers, human resource officers and senior officers from the office of the Public Service Commission,” he said.

“It is crucial that a workforce strategy is established to address the challenges and bolster OPSC’s position as the Good Employer.”

OPSC’s Acting Deputy Secretary, Mr. Stephane reiterated that this training is an excellent opportunity to provide foundational skills to participants to better plan their workforce in addressing the challenges encountered in their agencies.

“The workforce planning training is basically understanding workforce data and analysing it to inform future demand for people and skills and then come up with a set of actions to meet that demand,” he said.

“The OPSC anticipated a good turnout from the training and is optimistic that with skills obtained from this workforce planning training, the participants will develop action plans that are realistic and achievable.”