ICPE meets partner institutions in India

ICPE Training programmes

9 – 11 July 2012

In the field of short-term training programmes, ICPE cooperates with a number of renowned government departments, institutes, as well as private educational institutions in India. During ICPE’s recent working visit to New Delhi (9 – 11 July 2012), ICPE Acting Director General, Mr. Janez Podobnik, visited some of the partner institutions to discuss further cooperation.

At ISTM – INSTITUTE OF SECRETARIAT TRAINING AND MANAGEMENT, ICPE met with ISTM Director, Shri K. G. Verma and his team.

In previous years, ICPE conducted several executive training programmes for officers of the Government of India, as the foreign component of their obligatory training at ISTM. The programmes at ICPE focused on the topics of public policy, good governance, and public enterprises management through academic inputs, visits to different Slovenian government departments and institutions and field visits to successful public and private enterprises. The participants came in close contacts with Slovenian public officials, whereby they were exposed to the planning processes in the institutions, and familiarised with successful and innovative governmental actions, plans and projects.

In the meeting at the ISTM premises in New Delhi, several key issues regarding the future training were discussed. ICPE will be required to organise and conduct trainings for three different levels of the Government of India officers, namely Level E (Under Secretaries), Level F (Deputy Secretaries) and Level G (Directors), which will influence and differentiate the approach to the chosen topics. As previously in the one or two-week trainings the participants visited relevant institutions in four EU countries (Slovenia, Italy, Austria and Hungary), now the possibility of exposure to public policy implementation in other countries will be explored. In particular, ICPE proposed to include a visit to Brussels, where EU institutions and their functioning could be closely observed.

ISTM and ICPE also reached the conclusion that even though the feedback from the previous participants and evaluation of the programmes were very positive in the past, the evaluation questionnaires will be improved and more qualitatively oriented in the future. Furthermore, an interactive session with the participants will be included at the end of the training programme at ICPE, where participants will have the opportunity to resolve any remaining questions regarding the training contents, as well as provide their assessments of the programme, which are crucial for the on-going improvement of the courses.

New training programmes for ISTM are expected to begin in October 2012.

Mr. Janez Podobnik and Shri K. G. Verma, ISTM Director

At the FIIB – FORTUNE INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS, a leading management institution in India offering management education and research with a focus on international business, ICPE met with dr. Manish Kheterpal, Chairman of the Governing Board and Prof. K. B. C. Saxena, Dean of the Faculty. As one of the FIIB’s core pillars is sustainability, ICPE conducted in 2011 a training programme on climate change management for the students of FIIB. FIIB students gained skills, which will help them to take a role in strategic planning and managing climate change solutions for business, government and non-profit organisations. Apart from classic academic inputs (lectures) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the programme also included field trips within Slovenia and a tour to Italy, Venice, Rome and Vatican city.

In New Delhi, several possibilities for further cooperation between FIIB and ICPE were discussed, namely: cooperation in student exchange programmes similar to the one already conducted, joint programme on corporate training with international faculty at FIIB, joint research projects, or intensive short-term training programmes for students on Indian economy and business environment in India.

At IIPA – INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, ICPE met with the IIPA Director, dr. Rakesh Hooja and his team, including prof. Anil Ittyerah and prof. Nand Dhameja, who visited ICPE in 2010.

Following the previous efforts in exploring the possibilities of establishing a joint management programme on public-private partnership in cooperation with an educational institution from Slovenia, the conditions and prospective of international MBA programmes were discussed in the meeting. The advantages of a compressed, one-year programme were mentioned, while it was underlined that the needs of the PSE managers need to be well researched and determined, so that the MBA programmes will respond to the actual needs of the India’s public sector as closely as possible.

IIPA and ICPE will also cooperate in the field of short-term training programmes on the topic of public sector management in a changing global environment. A two-week programme had previously been discussed and prepared, and it included academic inputs, as well as visits to relevant institutions and companies in Graz, Vienna, and Salzburg in Austria, as well as Munich in Germany.

Prof. Anil Ittyerah (IIPA), Mr. Janez Podobnik, Dr. Rakesh Hooja (Director, IIPA), Ms. Sara Arko, Prof. Nand Dhameja (IIPA)