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Part Six:
Evaluation,
Feedback And Impact Of Programmes And Activities: The Case
of Training And Lifelong Learning In The Public Service
Within the climate of an emerging knowledge-based economy
or knowledge society around the world, it has become the norm
or the in-thing that many countries have accorded human resource
development as an imperative objective of their economic development
(for developing countries) or their achieving sustained economic
growth (for developed countries). Now, the pursuit has taken
an added dimension as human capital is seen as a critical
factor in the new knowledge-based economy. The route and path
toward achieving such pursuits are multifarious, depending
on the stage of growth and development, or maturity of their
economies and societies. For many developing countries, the
immediate priorities would still be providing basic infrastructures
like service quarters, laboratories, infostructure and so
on. For some countries like Malaysia, which have put in place
much of the basic infrastructures over the decades, and more
recently putting the infostructure to meet the demands of
the digital economy, the journey has tended to be smooth.
Merely providing the infrastructures and infostructures
is a necessary but not a sufficient condition. The training
of its human resources with all types of skills become critical
- both within the private or public sector. This commentary
focuses on an evaluation of training, including postgraduate
training within the public sector. The proliferation of all
kinds of tertiary institutions - government and private universities,
polytechnics, colleges, open and virtual universities are
now becoming commonplace. The choice of subjects and disciplines,
the aggressive advertisements, and the individual desire to
be known as a qualified person, armed with strings of qualifications,
all seem to point out to the ‘rush’ and at times
the ‘ease’ of getting qualified. This is quite unlike
in the past where the academic pathway involves a rigorous
training of between 3 to 4 years and even taking more years
for the pursuit of postgraduate degrees. What this commentary
wants to focus is on some basic and critical issues relating
to postgraduate training, which if properly handled can have
a significant impact on the capability and productivity of
public servants.
Postgraduate training is associated with in-depth learning
- either by course work or research on particular subjects.
To start with, a strong undergraduate training which provides
an introduction to intellectual rigours, theoretical and philosophical
underpinnings is critical to enable a better appreciation
of the subjects to be studied at postgraduate level. Or to
be able to cope with the more rigorous amount of reading and
writings that go with it. Furthermore, the training also require
residential presence, and frequent interaction within the
campus life, which means preparation and presentations of
seminar papers. It goes without saying that a critical and
analytical mind is a mandatory prerequisite. While access
to the most current information is greatly facilitated because
of the Internet, the experience a student gets in an actual
learning atmosphere, especially within a university campus,
where you can mingle with lecturers and fellow students, or
frequenting the university library almost on a daily basis,
serves as an added learning value.
Postgraduate training would normally entail a value-adding
experience in terms of acquisition of knowledge and ideas,
contribution of ideas and the training of the mind. In many
well-established British universities, you would only be regarded
as a postgraduate diploma student before actually being admitted
to proceed to complete the Master’s degree. In the case
of Ph.D., the student would have to think deeply of the lonely
four years ahead of him or her.
Today’s mushrooming of e-learning, ‘virtual university’,
or nondescript universities must mean that students have to
be mindful of getting into the ‘right’ institution.
The service needs officers and staff who, if they go through
the mill and earning their spurs, would be able to come up
with important and well-prepared papers and reports for decision-making.
Only with the right training, by taking the right subjects
and getting trained by the right institutions will ensure
that we are on the right track. Ultimately, our executive
students should get the right training as well.
Let us remind ourselves what evaluation means. For our purpose,
evaluation includes an examination of our training needs (the
TNA must be done first), a critical assessment on the institutions
conferring the certificates, diplomas and degrees, and a rigorous
evaluation on the executive students themselves. Firstly,
let us deal with the expectation of training needs. Training
needs, if and when properly assessed, will cull out the key
areas where additional or new things are needed. For the public
service, the range can be very broad - engineering, ICT, policy
sciences, economics, town planning, sociology or anthropology.
The service obviously needs a very broad spectrum of expertise
yet focussed as well. While acknowledging that the service
needs good all-round managers ( for example an engineer with
a business degree - Engineering and MBA), it would make even
greater sense to go deeper pursuing Master’s degree or
beyond in engineering, economics, finance, biotechnology and
so on. We need not just top-class bureaucrats but also polished
technocrats.
Secondly, let us dwell on expectations of the institutions.
The chosen institution should be one known to develop the
innovative and creative abilities of their students, who upon
completion become graduates equipped with analytical and conceptual
skills, entrepreneurial in their outlook, and subscribe to
continuous learning. Do these institutions have or possess
the adequate ideas, technology or resources to equip their
students? If the future expectation is to have inbuilt and
internalised in the students elements of intellectual rigour,
risk taking, change orientation, culture of learning and so
on, are these institutions adequately equipped especially
with the provision of quality teaching staff? It is recognized
that teaching and learning should not be strictly face-to-face
as it is also recognized that it can also be based on web-learning
approaches. However, it must be emphasized that we associate
ourselves with reputable institutions.
Lastly, let us touch on our expectations from the students
being the final product. What do we expect of their contribution
to their organizations and society? Can they continue to acquire
new knowledge and skills and apply them in their workplace?
Can they write and present papers and analyse detailed technical
reports in terms of their methodologies, theoretical underpinnings,
or philosophical perspectives? All these criteria would demand
academic excellence, research contributions and seminal ideas.
The new economy i.e. the knowledge-based economy demands
the need for continuous lifelong learning and training. The
way forward is therefore to develop willingness to continuously
learn and to be able to participate gainfully in the new economy
environment. Drucker in his book “The New Realities”
for instance, reminded readers that “ engineers ten years
out of school are already obsolete if they have not refreshed
their knowledge and add on to their expertise”. The same
is true for any profession, including those of us serving
in the Sarawak Civil Service.
An inquisitive mind will always ask many probing and thought-provoking
questions in their search for knowledge. Economists in dealing
with the problem of scarcity vis-a-vis insatiable wants ask
key questions like what to produce, how to produce, and for
whom? The continuous learning questions within the knowledge
economy era ask the following questions:
- Know what? (knowledge of facts)
- Know why? (knowledge of society and how things happen)
- Know who? (knowledge of community)
- Know when? (knowledge of time - temporal issues)
- Know where? (knowledge of space - spatial aspects)
For the Sarawak Civil Service, we further want to add on
the need to undertake training in new areas and fields (possibly
in getting trained doing subjects you don’t like but
you need to do well), attend workshops, seminars, talks, events,
or events particularly where experts and world class speakers
are present; reading voraciously; and going back to class
by organizing executive education, skills enhancement and
so on.
In conclusion, this commentary wants to reiterate that while
recognizing the necessity for training, specifically postgraduate
training, and the pursuit of lifelong learning for the members
of the public service, it is important that we are mindful
and take account of the fact that we pursue our efforts based
on our real needs, be tied up and linked with the best institutions
(not diploma mills), and ensure that executive students pursue
areas where they are academically ready and truly add to intellectual
innovation and thereafter contribute meaningfully to their
organizations. The ultimate test is whether we can continue
and sustain our learning habits, pen down and articulate our
thoughts and views, put up well-argued research papers and
reports, analyse the issues rationally, both qualitatively
and quantitatively, and put up alternative solutions or options
for decision making.
WBD
Editor-in Chief
Part
VII of this commentary on
another topic will continue
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