Formation of the public administrator: Alternatives debate

Abstract

An awareness of the potential fact that the Federal Government may soon decide upon the professionalization of higher-level civil servants influenced the author to present such topic for public debate at the 9th World Congress on Training.

This article is based on inductive notions and personal ideas developed upon an evaluation of the recent experience with public management training and development programs, undergone by the Brazilian School of Public Administration and by other institutions and consulting firms.

The author discusses the comparative inadequacies of alternative programs, as well as the means by which they complement each other within a framework of continuous education, aimed essentially at the needs of the public sector. He further analyses the possibility of establishing a Public Executive Development

Center, with a national and interinstitutional scope, whose main objectives would be the training of higher-level civil service management personnel, where the exchange of work-related experiences would be used as a resource.

According to the author, such network could be operated through graduate extension programs, such as CIPAD, which is run by the Brazilian School of Public Administration.