National School of Government

Overview

The National School of Government (NSG) has a constitutional and legislative mandate to provide Education, Training and Development (ETD) in the three spheres of government, state-owned entities (SOEs) and organs of state. This mandate is in line with Section 195 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, which declares public administration to be development-oriented and participatory, and the basic values and principles being the basis of interaction between public administration (three spheres of government, organs of state, public enterprises) and society. This is achieved through integrated and collaborative network of training institutions and practitioners, including independent individual contractors, onboard trainers, higher education institutions and private entities, providing the public service with affordable access to quality training opportunities. The NSG also has collaborated with different international partners on board that assist with delivery of programmes at an international level.

In terms of current legislative arrangements, government departments must annually budget one per cent of the employee compensation budget for training of its employees. The responsibility for training employees is vested with departmental accounting officers (Public Service Act) and is undertaken primarily through competitive procurement processes. The NSG is required to generate revenue towards ensuring its financial viability and sustainability and, as such the NSG is placed on a competitive and cost-recovery footing, together with internal and external training providers. The cost recovery model is made up of partial funding appropriated by Parliament and income derived from cost recovery through training course fees, which is managed in the Training Trading Account (TTA). The cost recovery model requires that all costs associated with the design and development of learning material and implementation of training courses from the training fees are recovered. The ETD interventions are delivered to public representatives and public servants and are clustered in accordance with the following occupational bands: I. Cadet and Foundational Management: Providing ETD interventions to graduates who wish to join the public service, public service interns and public servants up to occupational level 8 (support staff, administrators and supervisors. II. Middle Management Development: Providing ETD interventions for junior and middle managers with emphasis on occupational skills (know how), supply chain management, budgeting, supervisory skills and pathways to (further) qualifications. III. Senior Management Development and Professionalisation: Providing ETD interventions to senior managers. These include analytical skills, problem solving as well managing money and people. This is in addition to the core competencies (expertise) required to perform as a professional public servant.