Civil servants drop out of training

Foreign language training for civil servants had to be cut back after it was found half of all participants had dropped out, according to a new report.

As a result, Italian, Spanish and Russian classes for civil servants have been discontinued in order to focus more on the learning of French and German, according to the report released yesterday by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The report, on value for money in training and development in the Civil Service, found considerable differences between departments in the amount of resources allocated to the area.

Some departments had difficulty spending the extra resources they were given for training.

The average number of training days received by civil servants compared well to that received in the private sector. The average Irish civil servant receives 3.3 days of formal training a year. In the private sector, the average is 2.7 days of formal training and 2.4 days of informal training.

However, the average varies from almost six days of training a year in the Department of Health and the Central Statistics Office to less than one day in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Lowest and highest grades tend to receive the least training. The best-trained officials in the civil service are administrative officers in the Department of Agriculture, who spend 19 days a year on training courses.

The Civil Service spent £16.5 million on training and development in 1999, and this figure is set to rise substantially as the importance of further courses is recognised. However, the report says most departments do not have training policies, plans and review procedures.

The report is available on the Internet at www.irlgov.ie/audgen