KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – Senior managers and heads of government departments and agencies are being encouraged to enroll in the newly established Public Sector Senior Leadership Development Programme (PSSLDP), as part of their plans for career advancement.

This invitation comes from Minister with responsibility for the Public Service, Ministry of Finance and Planning Horace Dalley, who says the programme, based on its content, represents a “solid investment.”

He was speaking during the PSSLDP’s launch at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), in Kingston, last Thursday.

The programme is a joint engagement between the Management Institute for National Development (MIND), and Office of the Services Commission (OSC), with funding support from the Finance and Planning Ministry.

It is deemed integral to the Government’s leadership succession strategy, and aims to create a cadre of senior executives capable of leading the public sector modernisation and transformation programme.

The PSSLDP is also intended to prepare a corps of senior officers from whom the positions of Permanent Secretary, Director General, and Chief Executive Officer, can be filled.

In this regard, Dalley told the first cohort of 25 officers attending the launch, that “every training opportunity (provided, such as the PSSLDP,) can (only serve to) enhance your personal (and professional) development.”

Meanwhile, MIND’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ruby Brown, noted that the PSSLDP “is clear about supporting individual learning needs…but priority is given to the strategic needs of the (general) public service.”

To this end, she said “it makes (provisions) for (the delivery of) topics such as diversity, social inclusion, energy, and health and food security.”

Participants in the PSSLDP, which is slated to begin in January 2016, will benefit from lectures delivered by facilitators from Jamaica and Canada.

The initial participants include officers from: the Ministries of Education, Tourism and Entertainment, and Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade; Forestry Department; and Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), among other agencies.