22 Apr 2025

Botswana Public Service College (BPSC) is committed to provide training that will produce an ideal public service in line with the vision of the new administration.

The college’s  executive director Mr Kitso Kemoeng said they were ready to come up with training programmes aimed at retooling and developing a productive public service. 

He made the remarks recently at the signing of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Institute of Labour and Employment Studies (ILES). 

He said the MoU was intended to develop and capacitate the public service at all levels. 

“We view this as a long-standing relationship that will not only impact the public service capacity and productivity, but will also immensely cut litigation costs for government,” Mr Kemoeng said. 

He said their journey with ILES dated back to September 2024 at a human resource conference in Tlokweng, where ILES shared a presentation on poor management of labour issues by the public service.

“It is evident that the public service is wanting in managing and handling discipline and grievance management issues,” he said. 

He said the badly managed labour matters often increase litigation costs for government, when aggrieved parties escalated their grievances to the courts of law, where litigants often emerged successful. 

“The gaps highlighted by ILES at the conference easily suggested to us that there is a big gap in the public service waiting to be filled, and this gap cannot be filled by anybody else, but by us at the BPSC,” he said. 

Mr Kemoeng said the situation necessitated an urgent dialogue with ILES resulting in the signing of the MoU marking the commencement of a journey, not only to save government funds, but most importantly to ensure that staff grievances in the public service were handled fairly. 

He stated that the move would also mean grievances were free of bias and irregularities that continued to rock disciplinary proceedings. Mr Kemoeng said BPSC would offer training to ILES staff on areas agreed by the two parties. 

He said BPSC was established in 2008 to ensure quality and excellence in the delivery of services to the public. 

He said the broad mandate may be achieved effectively by leveraging on collaborative efforts. 

Mr Kemoeng said BPSC needed combined efforts of relevant stakeholders with requisite expertise, appetite and experience to assist in designing and delivering programmes to enable the public service to provide efficient and effective service delivery to the populace. 

He said ILES was a Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) accredited institution with the mission to empower the working population with relevant education, training and research on labour and employment studies. 

ILES chief executive officer Mr Shandukani Hlabano said the event marked a significant milestone in the ongoing journey of education and training. 

He said the two entities were united in their commitment to enhancing quality education and training by developing and nurturing a workforce that was both skilled and empowered. 

He said ILES was a labour college accredited as a learning and education provider. “The institute was founded by the Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) to among other things address the gap in workers education and training by providing the much needed soft skills,” said Mr Hlabano.

He said tertiary education does not provide one with the soft skills such as supervising, managing conflicts and dispute resolutions. “This is where ILES comes in to provide workers with skills to deal with challenges,” he said. 

He said the merging of efforts by the two institutions would not only provide knowledge but also real life skills essential to navigate the complexities of modern workplaces. “Through capacity building, together we can develop leaders in the public service by instilling values of integrity, transparency and commitment to the common good,” he said. ENDS