By Ozioruva Aliu

BENIN CITY – THE Managing Director, John Odigie Oyegun Public Service Academy (JOOPSA), Precious Imuwahen Ajoonu said the Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration has embarked on the training of public and civil servants at the academy to ensure that the beneficiaries reached their zenith in their areas of services which would make them give their best in their services.

   She stated this while addressing about 300 participants during a three days training at the Academy which she said was part of the 10,000 workers the academy is set to train in 2023 opened to civil and public servants in the three tiers of government. The participants were engaged in two transformative courses of Public Policy, Negotiation and Conflict Management.

   She said the academy is passionate about impacting the “right knowledge on civil and public servants, corporate organizations to enable them reach their goals, hence Governor Godwin Obaseki’s investment in the academy.”

    Ajoonu also called on members of the public and corporate organizations to leverage on the academy to add value to their workforce adding that “The academy since inception has been a major driver of Governor Godwin Obaseki’s transformation efforts being witnessed in Edo state civil and public service. Among other gains, the academy courses are designed to provide leaders with adequate knowledge and skills to reposition workers/participants for a better service delivery.

   She said participants were exposed to “Understanding conflict and difficult situations, advanced interpersonal skills for conflict management, mastering the art of persuasion, influence and negotiation, managing organisational conflict and culture. Public Policy imbibed in participants, the rudiments of public policy; introduction to public policy, policy process and life circle, stages and stakeholders, influencing public policy, option generation, option appraisal, cost benefit analysis.”

   Some of the participants who shared their experiences included Osaze Ogbomo of the Edo State Investment Promotion Office who described the training as “intensive” and “I have learnt a lot in terms of compliance, framework and how to create one and also how to manage my time and be able to work within timeline to be able to deliver on projects”

To Jessica Obasuyi, the training “has been so great, I learnt a lot, that we all are Project Managers, and it is not all about the job, that we can apply it to our personal lives and I am so grateful for the knowledge I have gotten in the past three days, i’m looking forward to applying it to my Personal life and my Job.”

On his part, Irobo Confidence of the Electricity Regulatory Commission said “This training have been wonderful for me it has exposed me to how to manage conflict in a workspace and I was also trained on how to work with a key skill like negotiation and this made me understand that I have responsibilities in making sure that the workspace is perfect and in good condition for every of my activities and task given.”