Competency vocational training as a strategy for improving public management

Abstract

In the wake of the recent economic crisis, the concern for the efficient provision of public services has been increased making necessary to improve management practices in order to face emerging organizational challenges for diversity, ethics, and digitalization, among others. For this purpose, a crucial element is the training for the development of managerial competencies which, through the blended learning modality, shapes a strategy to improve public management. This modality allows to combine face-to-face and distance training using MOOC platforms reducing costs and making schedules more flexible. The objective of this work is to elaborate a proposal based on the approach of learning by doing to develop training programs for public managers. First, we have analyzed the limitations of human resources processes, proposing competency models as an adequate framework for this purpose. Subsequently, after detecting training needs we have proposed a program that includes training and evaluative strategies for the so-called hard and soft competencies. Finally, we have discussed the implications of the training program in the current context of constant technological and social changes.