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As minister responsible for the Canada School of Public Service (the School), I am pleased to present the School's 2010-2011 Departmental Performance Report. The full document is available at www.myschool-monecole.gc.ca.
The School plays a key role in supporting the public service by offering relevant, affordable and quality learning and development programs across the country that support government priorities. In his most recent report to the Prime Minister, the Clerk of the Privy Council noted that we are entering a new stage in the evolution of the public service as a result of several factors, including changing demographics and an increasingly challenging operating environment. In this regard, the School plays a key role in supporting the renewal of the public service and ensuring that public servants have access to learning that will provide them with the skills and competencies to serve Canadians.
Over the past year, the School has made important progress in the implementation of its management agenda to strengthen its position as the learning organization of choice for public servants. The agenda included establishing a business model to gain efficiencies, ensuring that the School's curriculum reflects its core business, and aligning human resource capacity accordingly. These changes have resulted in lower costs, increased registration and greater client satisfaction. In short, the School is responding to client needs and providing value for money.
The School's professional and dedicated employees will continue to build on the initial progress that is highlighted in this report. I am confident that the School's capacity to deliver well managed and efficient programming will continue to serve the needs of the public service.
The Honourable Tony Clement
President of the Treasury Board and Minister for the
Federal Economic Initiative for Northern Ontario
The Canada School of Public Service (the School) is the common learning service provider for the Public Service of Canada. The School has a legislative mandate to provide a range of learning activities to build individual and organizational capacity and management excellence within the Public Service.
The School is in a unique position to offer learning services to all public service employees at all levels and across the country, as well as to functional communities and public organizations.
Established on April 1, 2004, under the Public Service Modernization Act operating under the authority of the Canada School of Public Service Act (CSPS Act), the School's primary responsibility is to provide a wide range of learning opportunities and develop a learning culture within the Public Service. The School has a direct effect on service to Canadians by contributing to the skills development of public service employees and the effectiveness of public service organizations.
As a departmental corporation, the School is mandated under the CSPS Act to:
The School's program priorities are geared to delivering results in accordance with the Treasury Board's Policy on Learning, Training and Development (the Policy), which came into effect on January 1, 2006. The Policy highlights the value of learning, with particular emphasis on required training, and the importance of creating a learning culture within the Public Service.
The School supports deputy head accountabilities with respect to leadership and professional development across the Public Service by identifying organizational needs and designing and delivering high-quality and practical programs that address the key development needs of public service employees.
As a common service organization under the Treasury Board's Common Services Policy, the School's curriculum is designed to support public service accountabilities and to respond to leadership competencies and government priorities. As an optional service provider, the School continuously responds to the needs of the public service in the most efficient and effective manner possible.
The School is integral to Public Service Renewal, offering a broad suite of courses to incrementally advance the renewal agenda. It also supports the priorities of the Public Service Renewal's Excellence Agenda by supporting the renewal of the workforce and workplace.
The School has a single strategic outcome: "Public servants have the common knowledge and the leadership and management competencies they require to fulfill their responsibilities in serving Canadians." Four program activities support this strategic outcome:
The chart below illustrates the Canada School of Public Service's complete framework of program activities, sub-activities and sub-sub-activities, which roll up and contribute to progress in achieving the strategic outcome.
Priority | Type [1] | Strategic Outcome(s) and/or Program Activity(ies) |
---|---|---|
Support to functional communities | Ongoing | Foundational Learning |
Status [2]: Met All | ||
|
Priority | Type | Strategic Outcome(s) and/or Program Activity(ies) |
---|---|---|
Implementation of the Leadership Development Framework (LDF) | New | Organizational Leadership Development |
Status: Mostly Met | ||
|
Priority | Type | Strategic Outcome(s) and/or Program Activity(ies) |
---|---|---|
Continued internal efforts to improve efficiency and effectiveness in operations | Ongoing | All Program Activities |
Status: Exceeded | ||
|
Priority | Type | Strategic Outcome(s) and/or Program Activity(ies) |
---|---|---|
Continue to improve business processes | Ongoing | All Program Activities |
Status: Exceeded | ||
|
Priority | Type | Strategic Outcome(s) and/or Program Activity(ies) |
---|---|---|
Implementation of Integrated Learning Management System (ILMS) | New | All Program Activities |
Status: Met All | ||
|
The School's 2010-11 Management Agenda was developed to ensure that the School is delivering high quality, relevant learning products and services in a cost-effective manner, while demonstrating strong management practices. As a result, a number of strategic decisions were made, most notably, a new organizational structure that reduces the top executive layers of management allowing for future savings. The new structure consolidates the School's program delivery activities under one branch and allows for streamlined decision-making across the department.
In an effort to ensure that its products and services are meeting the needs of the public service, the School regularly reviews its curriculum. In 2010-11, the School undertook a comprehensive review of its curriculum which led to the retirement of courses that were performing below expectations. The review of the School's curriculum also fostered the development of new products and services that are more aligned to the needs of the public service.
In response to the Government of Canada's ongoing focus on reducing the current federal budgetary deficit and the continued absorption of funding reductions from the Horizontal Strategic Review Exercise, the School identified ways to be more efficient and effective while better aligning its programs with department and agency learning needs. The School further worked to mitigate the associated risks by focusing efforts on strengthening its curriculum and by using its human resources and technologies to deliver the highest quality learning and training products available. The School also made efforts to build effective partnerships with its key clients and stakeholders to ensure that it is properly positioned to address the learning needs of the Public Service.
The management of the School's information technology (IT) resources in support of its business applications continues to evolve. The concept of shared services is being embraced through clustering service agreements with other federal organizations (e.g. SAP through Health Canada, IT infrastructure through Public Works and Government Services Canada, PeopleSoft through the Treasury Board Secretariat, etc.). There are additional opportunities for the School to promote a collaborative learning environment, one that increasingly relies on emerging technology and is core to the long term growth of the organization. In an effort to mitigate the associated risks, the School has implemented an IT rationalization initiative that seeks efficiencies and prioritizes key investments in IT support services, such as, virtualization of the server environment and optimizing technologies used in classrooms. As well, during 2010-11, the School finalized the implementation of the ILMS which allowed for the integration of the registration, management and administration of learning and promotion of a collaborative learning environment.
The School addressed its human resources/workforce management challenges by focusing on talent management, both by encouraging the development of competencies and skills among existing employees and recruiting public service employees with the skills and competencies they require to deliver high quality services to Canadians. Factors which add complexity include the limited number of subject matter experts and candidates with course design and teaching expertise in addition to the intense competition among departments and agencies to attract functional experts in certain professional fields. To mitigate this risk, the School worked to promote the development of in-house expertise, reducing reliance on external contracted resources for program delivery. By securing in-house expertise on a permanent basis, the School was able to reduce its reliance on consultants while gaining efficiencies and building corporate expertise.
Planned Spending | Total Authorities | Actual Spending |
---|---|---|
112,691 | 153,357 | 128,634 |
Planned | Actual | Difference |
---|---|---|
940 | 934 | -6 |
Performance Indicators | Targets | 2010-11 Performance |
---|---|---|
Change in the level of participants' common knowledge due to training (Orientation, Authority Delegation Training) received at the School. | The School will continue benchmarking in 2010-11 and will implement recommendations of the Formative Evaluation of Authority Delegation Training. Orientation to the Public Service will be evaluated in 2011-12. | Respondents reported an increase in their perceived level of knowledge for both Orientation and Authority Delegation courses (4.09 post-course versus 3.10 pre-course based on a 5 point scale). The School continued to work on implementing recommendations resulting from the Formative Evaluation on Authority Delegation Training, including: defining priority knowledge elements and improving the quality of knowledge assessments and related participation rates. |
Percentage of participants who report their learning objectives were met through the School's leadership and management training received. | 80% of respondents report learning objectives met. | In 2010-11, 89% of respondents reported that their learning objectives were met through the training provided by the School. |
Degree of satisfaction of participants with the School's training received. | Learning activities receive an average rating of 4 on a 5 point scale on overall satisfaction. | On average, participants reported a 4.21 level of satisfaction with assessed learning activities (classroom courses and events). |
Program Activity | 2009-10 Actual Spending ($ thousands) |
2010-11 [4] ($ thousands) | Alignment to Government of Canada Outcomes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Main Estimates |
Planned Spending |
Total Authorities |
Actual Spending |
|||
Foundational Learning | 52,159 | 69,358 | 69,358 | 101,650 | 72,488 | Well managed and efficient government operations |
Organizational Leadership Development | 14,179 | 13,724 | 13,724 | 19,133 | 17,993 | |
Public Sector Management Innovation | 8,253 | 11,647 | 11,647 | 11,124 | 10,468 | |
Total | 74,591 | 94,729 | 94,729 | 131,907 | 100,949 |
Program Activity | 2009-10 Actual Spending ($ thousands) |
2010-11 ($ thousands) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Main Estimates |
Planned Spending |
Total Authorities |
Actual Spending |
||
Internal Services | 63,679 | 17,962 | 17,962 | 21,450 | 27,685 |
The differences between actual spending and planned spending reflect the increase in the amount of revenue generated above the planned spending amount by the School.
For information on our organizational votes and/or statutory expenditures, please see the 2010-11 Public Accounts of Canada (Volume II) publication. An electronic version of the Public Accounts is available on the Public Works and Government Services Canada website.