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Training strategy for the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

Description

This training strategy was developed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MoIA) of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in co-operation with the OSCE Mission to Skopje and aims to establish the training system that will incorporate an effective methodology and procedures to establish the training needs and plan their delivery.

Summary

The training system within organisations is becoming a current issue in a situation when, compared to certain defined standards, or to the expectations of the users of the services of the organisation, there has been a shortfall in the performance of employees. Therefore, despite the existing of a formal training structure (the education system at a state level, the training system of individuals within the Police Academy and the High School for police within the MoIA) the training system of the MoIA became a burning issue in the period of major reforms of the police and the MoIA as a whole. The organisational change of 2004 was the turning point, or the year when the biggest organisational changes were made, the implications of which meant there were bigger training needs. A key contribution to the development of police training and education in this period was given by the twinning project led with the support of the European Agency for Reconstruction. It started in September 2005 and it lasted for 18 months. It was implemented by the Dutch Police Academy as a partner of the former Police Academy of the Republic of Macedonia. This project supported the development and strengthening of the internal standards and procedures for police training, i.e., the concept of competency-based training was implemented. An additional contribution of this project was the significant renovating of the buildings of the Police Academy.

The major internal changes with broad implications for system changes within the training function took place in the period of organisational changes of 2009. What is characteristic of this period is that it is the period which saw the end of the process of transformation of the Ministry into a classical body of state governing without operational functions, while the police (the Bureau for Public Security – BPS), with the new organisational setup and methodology of work, worked towards adopting the West-European policing practices, with emphasis on cooperation with the citizens, transparency, accountability and frugality in the work.

The need for a strategy for the training of MoIA employees stems from two main reasons. The first need is formal: in order to have an increased normative basis of training activities for the MoIA employees, the priorities are defined and they are adjusted to the priorities established in higher hierarchical documents - the Strategic Plan of the MoIA and the Strategy for Human Resources Management. The second reason is a core reason: in order to ensure greater effectiveness of training, it is necessary that the existing achievements in the delivery of training and in the other components of the training system are supplemented by decisions that will increase the functionality of this system, and thereby contribute to a much higher degree to the development of MoIA’s human resources, as a key prerequisite for the achievement of MoIA’s strategic goals. The identified shortcomings and weaknesses are just indicators that show where the strategic priorities should be focused in order to build a much more functional training system for MoIA employees.