Learning and Development Guideline

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The Fijian Civil Service inspires a culture of learning and development to increase capacity – their knowledge, skills and abilities – and create competent and responsive teams servicing the Fijian people.

Joining the Civil Service enables career advancement through the support of scholarships, study leave, study assistance and individual capacity development.

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What are the key benefits?

• Employees take control of their own dynamic learning and career development opportunities, which advance their skills and transfer new knowledge to the workplace.
• Developing the skills and competency of the Civil Service will lead to a more responsive Government serving the public needs.
• Managers lead by example and support their teams in continuous improvement and knowledge transfer.

How have the approaches to learning and development changed in the Civil Service ?

The 2018 Learning and Development Guideline acknowledges that workplace learning can happen anywhere, at any time and can be a combination of:

• On job experience
• Coaching and mentoring
• Secondments and attachments, task force participation, job rotation and other workplace-based development opportunities
• Conference attendance
• Classroom learning/ courses or workshops
• Distance learning including eLearning (electronic technology) and mLearning (mobile device)
• Academic programmes leading to professional qualifications

What about other learning opportunities ?

Other learning and development opportunities include job training activities, attachments and secondments with other Ministries, mentoring programmes, and short conferences and workshops (regional and overseas).

Is there support available for part time study ?

Yes – read the Learning and Development FAQs and section 8 of the Guideline.

• Refunds are available for successful completion of each Semester of study, for approved, relevant programmes.
• Any programme of study must be approved by your Permanent Secretary, prior to commencement of each semester of study. Retrospective approval for reimbursement of funds will not be granted.

Can I apply for a scholarship ?

Yes – refer to section 6 of the Guideline for full details.

• Employees who achieve a minimum performance assessment rating of ‘competent’ (step 3) or higher may apply for scholarships through scholarship providers including development partners.
• The scholarship programme must be compatible with an identified priority need in the Civil Service. Not all identified priorities are scarce skills, only scarce skills attract leave on full or partial salary.
• Clear justifications must be included in the application made through your Manager/Supervisor and approved by your Permanent Secretary.
• Programme priorities that are initiated by the Ministry to meet scarce skill requirements, can be supported by full or partial salary. Programmes that are initiated by the employee are on leave without pay.

How do I apply for study assistance?

• Employees requesting support for a formal programme of self-initiated study, must have their programme of study approved by their Permanent Secretary, prior to commencement of each semester of study.
• Employees, with prior approval, may be supported in leave on full pay, annual leave entitlements and reimbursement of fees.

Can I attend courses within Government?

• The Ministry of Civil Service is responsible for providing Learning & Development programmes each year to meet the core skill needs of the Civil Service.
• Core skills include public administration, code of conduct, civil service values, leadership, supervision and other generic skills critical to good public sector workplace management.

Please read the full terms and conditions outlined in the Guideline.