Boost Your Skills for Public Sector Leadership 

Public sector professionals often work in complex environments where they need to coordinate with other departments or institutions, manage competing interests, and communicate difficult decisions. In these situations, skills such as leadership, facilitation, negotiation, and change management are just as important as technical expertise. 

Group presentation during the leadership training for Algerian women female judges.

The Hague Academy has expanded its skills training for professionals in the public sector. Skills exercises have always been included in our thematic courses, but we increasingly offer them as in-depth modules for specific groups of civil servants. The practical training helps them become more effective in implementing new policies, leading reforms, and managing projects. One example is the training programme “Career Development Support for Women Judges in Algeria” developed for UNDP Algeria to train Algerian female judges on judicial communication, leadership, court and conflict management.

To be successful as a judge takes more than just legal expertise. The judges need to explain complex decisions, respond to media attention, manage professional relationships within courts, and deal with conflict.

In the training, they explored how to communicate clearly with external audiences while protecting judicial independence and professionalism. They also practised their skills, to become more effective in negotiation, conflict resolution, and cooperation within judicial institutions.

Skills need to be practised

Another example of skills training is the curriculum on project management that The Hague Academy developed and implemented last year for Curacao, Aruba, and Sint Maarten. In response to the huge need for practical skills training, we also offer three in-depth open subscription courses. In May this year, we organised the Training of Trainers course for a a diverse group of participants from countries such as Ghana, Kenya, Latvia, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

“Attending the course placed me in both the trainer and learner roles and provided me with a comprehensive toolkit covering the entire training cycle. I will use the knowledge and skills gained not only to develop and deliver training programmes on climate-resilient water resources management  but also to strengthen our partner’s institutional capacity and support their knowledge transfer through a sustainable ToT methodology. ”   Dr. Zahraa Al-Goybar, Advisor for Water Resources Management & Governance, GIZ Iraq.

Next year, The Hague Academy offers three dedicated skills courses:

• Training of Trainers: this training focuses on the design and facilitatation for effective learning in international and culturally diverse settings. Participants practise methods such as experiential learning, role play, peer coaching, and group work, while learning how to manage group dynamics and difficult conversations.
  The dates in 2027 are: 15 – 19 March 2027
• Project Management in the Public Sector: this course helps participants structure and manage projects in complex public-sector environments. They work with tools for stakeholder analysis, risk management, team coordination and monitoring, using a project from their own organisation.
  The dates in 2027 are: 31 August – 3 September 2027
• Public Leadership focuses on the personal and professional skills needed to guide teams, communicate clearly, manage change, and make decisions in demanding institutional environments.
  The dates in 2027 are: 6 – 9 July 2027

Would you like to follow one of our skill courses to be able to better navigate the challenges of complex projects, training colleagues, and/or leading teams and departments in the public sector? Learn more about our Project Management in the Public Sector course, Training of Trainers, or our forthcoming Public Sector Leadership course.