Convergence or divergence? Trainees’ and trainers’ perceptions of the customization and effectiveness of public service training

Abstract

In many parts of the world, central training agencies have played an important role in formulating training policies. However, due to public management reforms, training in the public sector has been customized and effectiveness emphasized. The drivers for such changes can generally be categorized into individual and institutional levels. Trainers and trainees, as opposite ends of the training programme, should normatively hold different views on these drivers. Trainers, being on the supplier side, should be influenced more by institutional-level drivers; trainees, as recipients, should be affected mainly by individual-level drivers. However, our empirical evidence on training in Hong Kong’s public sector reveals that trainees care about both drivers while trainers are strangely indifferent to both.

Keywords:

• civil service training
• customization
• effectiveness
• public sector reform
• institutional
• individual