APPLICATIONS OPEN

Join our free, online Educators Workshop on 27 November at 2-6.30pm CET to learn more about how to teach our Digital Age Syllabus. Deadline for applications is 25 November 2024. This workshop is for educators teaching in national public service schools.

What is it?

This workshop provides practical training to professors, lecturers and teachers who are teaching in national public service schools to support them in teaching a range of key digital-era skills that are essential for public officials to thrive in a changing digital era public sector.

The workshop has been designed for educators who teach in existing public servants in national public service schools. Public service schools have different names in different countries. If you teach in a national school of administration, school of government, institute of public administration, staff college, institute for training, civil service commission or similarly named institution, then this workshop is for you!

The training is a free supplement to the open access syllabus and teaching materials that we co-created with a community of academics and government practitioners in ten countries. These teaching materials are now in use across 50 different universities and national public service schools globally (and counting!) and translated into five languages.

Who is running the workshop? 

We are Professor Amanda Clarke, Professor Dr. Ines Mergel, Professor David Eaves, Tom Steinberg and Pontus Westerberg, the leadership team behind Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age - an open-education nonprofit with the mission of equipping the world’s public officials with modern, digital-era public service skills.

Who should apply?

The workshop is open to educators who teach within national public service schools, from around the world.

It is suitable for two types of people:

1. Educators who teach public policy or administration-related skills but who do NOT consider themselves to be digital specialists and who want to develop the confidence to teach the fundamentals.

2. Educators who DO consider themselves to be digital government specialists who are looking to broaden their teaching beyond the sub-specialism of digital government which they feel comfortable within.

As an educator who is already a digital specialist, why should I attend?

If you are already a digital expert, you almost certainly have specialisations in which you are an authority. This expertise is a huge asset when teaching within the comfort zone of your primary specialty. Nevertheless, public servants need to have a certain minimum level of knowledge across a wide range of digital-era subjects, from data ethics or project management to modern project management practices.

With our training and free open-access syllabus, we can give you the skills and confidence to teach digital government fundamentals outside your focus area. This will help you train graduates with a wide range of key competencies to help them succeed in public service roles.

As an educator who is a specialist in non-digital topics, why should I attend?

As a teacher of public administration you will already be aware that the digital revolution has been challenging and transforming governments. But how are you supposed to adapt your teaching to keep up with the digital era? And how are you supposed to work out what digital knowledge is essential vs optional for most people working in the public sector?

That’s where we come in. We’ve taken the burden of working out what the core digital era competencies are that all public servants need to possess. And we’ve developed a range of free, accessible training materials, and masterclasses to help you learn how to teach the fundamentals in this new domain.

Join us for a Workshop and feel your teaching confidence grow, enabling you to add digital components to your teaching with confidence.

Cost and eligibility

The Workshop is FREE for applicants teaching in national public service schools, thanks to support from the Public Interest Technology Infrastructure Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Schmidt Futures.

We welcome applicants from all countries. While the syllabus is available in five languages, the sessions take place in English, and attendees will need strong English language skills to participate fully.

Due to limited numbers, applicants are not guaranteed a place and will be selected based on the following criteria:

1. A strong interest in teaching using our free and open-access syllabus materials in the coming year.

2. Diversity of participants - including ensuring a spread of attendees from multiple countries.

3. The relevance of the applicant’s experience to the successful teaching of current public servants.

I teach in a university, not a public service school - can I apply?

No, not this time, sorry. This specific workshop is focused on the needs of national public service school educators. However, we are running workshops for university educators in September 2024 and October 2024.

You can also sign up to our newsletter to find out about future courses.

If you have any questions before you apply, please email mailbox@teachingpublicservice.digital.