By: Omolara Osindele

Newly promoted middle level officers in the Ogun State Civil/Public Service have been called upon to make training and re-retraining a must in their career progression, without necessarily waiting for their employers else, they will not improve in their chosen fields.

The Head of Service, Dr. Nafiu Aigoro made the call today while declaring open a 2-day capacity building workshop for newly promoted middle level officers, with the theme "Entrenching Job Ethics and Productivity Competencies in Public Officers", put together by the Bureau of Establishments and Training in collaboration with the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) Consultancy Service held at the Staff Development Centre, Oke-ilewo, Abeokuta.

According to him, officers must expose themselves to continuous training and re-retraining to make them get better at what they do, else, they will keep working the same way and keep getting the same results without any improvement.

While congratulating the participants for being the first set to be selected for the training after the 3-year combined promotion exercises, the Head of Service urged them to justify their MDAs' confidence by taking full advantage of the training for greater improvement and productivity, which will in turn move the Civil Service to higher heights.

"You need to train and retrain to move the Civil Service forward. If you're not trained, you will just be doing the same things the same way but trends have changed now. Don't wait for your employer to train you, do it yourselves; train yourselves and don't wait for your employer to develop you", the HoS emphasised.

In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Civil Service Commission, Mr. Adedayo Shomoye, enjoined the participants to brace up for future challenges in their various workplaces, be good participants, and make government see improvements in their performances for the betterment of the Service.

Mr. Shomoye said it was imperative to train the newly promoted officers in order to acquaint them with new trends of the civil service guiding their new cadres.

Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Bureau of Public Service Transformation Office (PSTO), Mr. Jola Oyeneye, encouraged the participants to contribute their quotas to the growth and development of the civil service and the State in general.

He urged them to have a new mindset to deliver optimally, as their thinking will go a long way in affecting their output, while they must always put in their best in all they do to make service delivery an easy task.

On his part, the lead facilitator, who is the Coordinator, OOU Consultancy Service, Prof. Adebiyi Abosede, congratulated Ogun State for being first in Human Capital Development and added that the state has displayed high level of proactiveness in this area, as not being proactive breeds mediocrity in the system.

He charged the participants to be involved in the decision making process of their various MDAs as this makes decision making by top government echelons to be fast and easy, moreso, it is a collective responsibility of all the workers.

Earlier in a welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Bureau of Establishments and Training, Mrs. Lydia Fajounbo said every promotion comes with new challenges and for such to be carefully surmounted, new skills, knowledge and change of mindset are needed to move on.

She said the theme of the training was chosen to equip the participants with the requisite skills to excel in their new levels, while attitudinal change as they assume higher responsibilities must be instilled in them for efficiency and effectiveness.