Region learns from the experience of the National Academy for Public Administration of the Republic of Serbia
March 17, 2021 – At the meeting of the Working Group of the Regional School of Public Administration (ReSPA) held on the topic of human resources management, the National Academy of Public Administration (NAJU) of the Republic of Serbia presented its results. The accomplished results positioned the Academy as a regional leader and an example of good practice in action. The meeting was opened by Marija Obradović, Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government, after which the participants were addressed by the Acting Director of NAJUm Dejan Miletić, Montenegro’s Minister of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media, Tamara Srzentić and Ratka Sekulović, Director of the ReSPA. This meeting was an opportunity to exchange know-how with peers from the region so that countries planning to establish national academies could emulate the good practice of NAJU.
“Only four years ago, the Republic of Serbia made the first steps in reforming professional training in public administration by founding the National Academy of Public Administration. We managed to elevate the professional training system in public administration to a higher level in a short time and make it equally accessible to all civil servants, both state and local. We have introduced a quality system in all professional development processes and started to apply the latest methods and employee training techniques. I believe that today’s meeting will enable you to get to know our Academy in more detail and that it will expand the idea of establishing and cooperating institutions of this type in the region,” said the Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government, Marija Obradović.
“For desired changes in public administration reform and professionalization of employees to be sustainable, i.e. for the specific behaviour of people working in the administration changing permanently, we need to motivate employees to work on themselves, develop and provide them with training programmes that are consistent with their needs and that will be available a mouse click away. This is exactly what the Academy’s entire team has been working on, and that is the direction we are using in order to facilitate the process of training and progress for all civil servants and to expedite change and keep Serbia on its path to EU membership, ” said the Acting Director of the NAJU, Dejan Miletić.
Introductory speeches were followed by presentations from the various NAJU sectors, so that members of the human resources management working group from the region would have the opportunity to get acquainted with all key information about NAJU’s work, starting from its establishment (legal framework and organizational structure) to preparing and implementing programmes, learning management systems, international cooperation and projects, visibility and communication to innovative approaches to training.
