The first Young Civil Servants Network Event was centered around this universal theme. Young talents from the Netherlands and abroad shared their experiences with networking, social media, work ethics and realising your ambitions in a government organisation.
One of our objectives to organize the event is to give civil servants from all over the world a chance to exchange ideas and experiences, as well as to discuss contemporary topics related to local governance. This year we chose the theme “How to get ahead in your career as a young civil servant” Through presentations by the Talents of the Talent for Governance September programme, several topics for discussion related to the overall theme got introduced, Relatively fast, it became clear that although working environments and organizational structures differ, young civil servants from all over the world come across similar issues during their daily tasks. As one of our talents, Panji Winarno, said: “it is always nice to interact with other young colleagues. In this way we learn what we have in common and also learn that even though we live in different countries and continents, we actually have lots of things in common”. This discovery lead to interesting discussions and an exchange of ideas and experiences on topics like equality of women, career opportunities, poverty, government systems and social media.
A lively debate emerged about government structures and career opportunities. Ryan Barcelo, one of the talents, stated that it is important to keep the opinion of higher placed officials in mind throughout your whole career. This statement lead to the question in how far own initiative is appreciated in current government systems. And maybe even more interesting, in how far is the young generation of civil servants able to extinguish themselves from the existing system to be fully able to use their knowledge and talent? Especially in countries which are known because of their hierarchic government system.
For our talents, as well as the Dutch young civil servants, the event was a fruitful activity which provided a lot of topics to think about in the future. By organising the Talent for Governance Network event we hope to make young civil servants aware of each other’s situations, challenges and exchangeable knowledge. Quoting Irene Achola from Uganda: “The Talent for Governance Network Event, being the first of its kind, can go a long way in linking civil servants all over the world, by creating a platform where ideas, opinions, challenges and innovations can be shared”.