Support for Capacity Building
Validation of a Competency-based Training Curriculum for NPS Support Staff

HSF

With the goal of making training and professional development available for its non-legal support staff, the Department of Justice–National Prosecution Service (DOJ-NPS), with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation, organised a Validation Workshop in Manila last 18 December 2019.  During said activity, a competency-based training curriculum, which was developed by an expert in said field in consultation with support staff from different regions in the country, was presented for discussion and confirmation. 

As pointed out by the expert, who also handled the development of the training curriculum for the prosecutors, “The need for training and development of the non-legal support staff of NPS came as a result of the efforts of the Special Projects Division to develop a life-long learning and development program for prosecutors.  It is a realization that developing the competencies of the NPS means providing training to both prosecutors and support staff.”

Harmonised with the NPS’s training curriculum for prosecutors, the proposed curriculum was divided into five parts: (a) foundation course; (b) technical (core) courses; (c) additional professional development; (d) work tools; and, (e) learning preference.

HSF

Led by the Chief of the Special Projects Division (SPD) of the DOJ-NPS, the participants to this workshop comprised ten support staff from different regions in the country.  The deliberations and exchanges that ensued resulted in final validation of the proposed training curriculum.  With its confirmation and validation, the curriculum is intended to contribute to the NPS’s putting in place of purposive and integrated training and development for its support staff nationwide.   

In recent years, with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the NPS through the SPD, was able to conduct studies on the Competency Approach to Career Development Planning, followed by a Competency Framework for NPS Support Staff Towards Institutionalization of Training and Professional Development that led to the Learning and Development Needs Analysis of NPS support staff. 

In 2019, there was also an effort to review, revise, and update the job descriptions and identify the competencies of eighteen (18) staff positions.   With the validation of the proposed curriculum, the NPS takes another step forward towards strengthening its institution and prosecution as a whole.

This activity was organised as part of the partnership between the DOJ-NPS and the HSF on the development of a training curriculum for the support staff of the DOJ-NPS.