The National Centre of Public Administration and Local Government (Ε.Κ.D.D.Α.), within the framework of “Information Society”, will implement a study for the restructure of the services of the Region of Central Macedonia as well as of the Prefecture and Municipality of Thessaloniki.

It is about a pilot integrated intervention to be carried out in eight public services which apart from the implementation of training programmes based on the new training needs of their executives, is accompanied by the restructure of the procedures and operations of these agencies within a digital environment.

The announcement was made by the Secretary General of Ε.Κ.D.D.Α. – Ministry of Internal Affairs, Public Administration and Decentralization Mr. George Voutsinos who together with the deputy minister of National Education & Religious Affairs, Mr. George Kalos, announced the commencement of the vocational training programmes for “the management of school libraries with the use of ICT (information and communications technologies)” which are organized in Thessaloniki by the National Center of Public Administration and Local Government (EKDDA) in collaboration with the Regional Directorates of Primary and Secondary Education.

The strategy of EKDDA and the vocational training activities it implements relate to the three following axes:

• The education and training’s response to the actual training needs of public administration and local government so as the results have a direct impact on citizens,
• The decentralization of training activities through the establishment in one year’s time of 9 Regional Institutes (P.IN.EP) at the seats of the Administrative Regions of the country, in order for more administration executives to be trained at their place of work and residence, and
• The participation of employees in their vocational training through the development of corporate relations with the social partners.

Mr. Voutsinos referred to the new vocational training programmes that are already implemented and regard special population groups, for example seminars addressed to 4,500 correspondents of Ο.G.Α.  (Insurance Organization of Farmers) and executives from Ο.Τ.Α. (Local Government Organizations), as well as more than 700 school libraries executives and school consultants. He also announced vocational training actions pertaining to the public management addressed to 7,856 employees in the sector of culture for the protection and promotion of our cultural heritage; 7,062 employees in the environmental sector, i.e. waste management, health and safety, etc.; 5,273 employees involved in financial issues, i.e. management of co-financed projects, government procurements, auditing mechanisms, preventive control, new law on development, new Municipal and Community code (5,286 employees).

Furthermore, Mr. Voutsinos announced specialized programmes pertaining to food quality assurance, use of products for the protection of plants and biological products, as well as seminars for electronic learning and electronic governance which are addressed to 25,000 executives of public administration and local government, 2,000 of whom will be trained through tele-training.