Evolving the Skills of Your Public Sector Workforce
Whether you’re training employees for the first time, refreshing, or advancing skills, evolving your workforce’s skillset can be a big time and resource commitment for public sector organizations. However, to continue providing vital services to the public, your employees must remain knowledgeable and have the technical skills to keep up with changing technology.
Unlock creative thinking through skilling
As public sector agencies implement innovative technology, employees need to feel comfortable and confident in managing these new systems. Involving teams in your digital transformation from the start encourages personal buy-in for newly implemented technology, which increases the likelihood of long-term adoption and success. It also opens the door for creative thinking and allows employees to combine their skills with their knowledge of the organization’s operations to find new ways to use technology to streamline operations, create efficiencies and deliver innovative programs and services.
Invest in the future success of your employees
Developing and refining your team’s skillset is an investment in time that enables the future success of your organization and its digital transformation. Employee retention is a top concern in the public sector, and creating a culture where individuals feel valued and invested in is critical.
Creating an employee training and skilling program can help. According to the 2023 LinkedIn Learning Report, providing learning opportunities is the number one-way organizations are working to improve retention. The report also found that employees who feel they are not learning will leave and seek other opportunities. Demonstrating your organization’s commitment to skilling and employee growth can also help in new employee recruitment.
Train your workforce to fill skilling gaps
Due to limited budgets and hiring restraints, public sector entities are increasingly focused on skilling their existing workforce. During the pandemic, many public service organizations lost talented employees to higher-paying private sector jobs. This left a shortage of development resources, resulting in a backlog of projects, longer development cycles and delayed deployments of critical applications.
To solve this problem for the future, government employees can take training on how to build applications using low code / no code technology. You don’t have to be a developer to create new applications using this technology. Increasing skills in this area will allow you to easily create and quickly deploy new applications for both internal and external use.
Use skilling to drive innovation
In empowering your workforce and building upon their existing skillsets your people become the fuel needed to drive innovation and success in your organization.
There are several resources available to help develop the skills of your workforce:
- Free self-paced courses that will allow employees to take training at their own pace whenever it is most convenient for them.
- Virtual sessions that employees can register for and get help answering any questions they have about the implementation of your digital solution.
- Workshops and demonstrations are available for employees to attend to see a demonstration of various products to help them fully understand how they are implemented and the various features within.
- Once your employees have mastered the skill, they can take a certification exam, and make it official.
- Explore public sector curated content on specific topics like secure identities, defending your data and zero trust.
| Article | Description |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Learn for Government | Moving to the cloud is one of the first steps a government organization must take to start their digital transformation. Visit this website for a list of relevant learning paths, modules, and other helpful resources to assist you. Users can create accounts and then select courses based on the skills they are looking to develop. |
| Optimize Government Operations with Azure | Take this training to learn about the value that Azure can bring to governments as they transition their workloads into the cloud. |
| Microsoft Azure Connected Learning Experience (CLX) | Become an Azure expert. This training program offers a personalized journey that aims to optimize learning experience while maximizing return on time invested. |
| Article | Description |
|---|---|
| Learn How to Implement Zero Trust in Your Public Sector Organization | As public sector entities continue to embark on their digital transformation and cyber threats continue to increase, having a Zero Trust security strategy is now more essential than ever before. In this collection, learn more about the importance of a Zero Trust strategy and how to implement it. |
| Defending Your Data | The “Defending your data” collection has been specially curated for those public sector customers willing to deep dive on how Microsoft responds to data protection, privacy, and residency requirements. |
| Secure Identities & Access | This collection has been specially curated for those public sector customers willing to accelerate their digital transformation and learn about the role of digital identity in that process. |
| Article | Description |
|---|---|
| Dynamics 365 | Governments are using products like Dynamics 365 to help them create efficient digital services for users. This can help you connect people, data, and processes across your organization to help increase efficiency and reduce costs. Take the training and get your certification. |
| Configure Dynamics 365 Finance for public sector | Take this training to learn how to configure Dynamics 365 to meet the rules, regulations, and reporting requirements for organizations that serve the public sector. |
| Dynamics 365 for Public Sector | Using Dynamics 365 governments can enable business processes such as budgeting, purchasing, accounts payable, and accounts receivable tasks. |
| Power Platform | Governments are using the suite of products within the Power Platform to accelerate innovation within their organization. The Power Platform can build custom applications that can automate processes. It can also build websites and virtual agents to help you share vital information with the public. Use this website to train yourself, get certified and connect with a community of other Power Platform users. |
| Get started with Power BI | Governments are harnessing the power of data to help them make informed decisions. Using tools like Power BI governments can leverage data to find problems, see patterns and make decisions quickly. Take this learning path to explore the fundamentals of Power BI. |
| AI business school for government | In government, decision-makers must take into account specific public sector considerations before they can realize the true transformational power of AI. It is critical to understand the components of a strategy that will help the public sector create value with AI. This learning path is designed for government decision-makers to illustrate the true transformational impact of AI in the public sector. |
| Microsoft Certifications | Earn certifications that show you are keeping pace with today’s technical roles and requirements. Browse the list of certifications, specific certifications for your role. |
| Microsoft Learn for GitHub | Learn, develop, and master essential Git and GitHub skills and join millions of developers and companies worldwide to build, ship, and maintain software on GitHub. |
| Article | Description |
|---|---|
| Azure Webinars and Workshops | Join us for live and on demand workshops and webinars covering topic-based deep dives and demos. Topics included AI, Analytics, Data Modernization and Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework. |
| Microsoft Virtual Training Days | As the workplace evolves, Microsoft is dedicated to providing the tools to empower you and your organization to achieve great things, along with the technical training you need to make it happen from anywhere. Microsoft Virtual Training Days are free, in-depth, virtual training events that guide you toward the many possibilities for career and organizational impact today and tomorrow. |
| Microsoft Events | Find upcoming events to help expand your ability, learn new skills, and build community. Search for events by product, role, or industry. |
| Power Platform in a Day Workshops | Experience how Microsoft Power Platform can meet your business challenges quickly and effectively by attending a virtual, one-day training workshop. |
To find out more:
- Understanding Digital Transformation in Government
- Cutting Edge Technologies to Improve Government Performance and Service
- Data Culture: Data Driven Organizations
- Episode 52: The importance of skilling in the digital world
About the Center of Expertise
Microsoft’s Public Sector Center of Expertise brings together thought leadership and research relating to digital transformation in the public sector. The Center of Expertise highlights the efforts and success stories of public servants around the globe, while fostering a community of decision makers with a variety of resources from podcasts and webinars to white papers and new research. Join us as we discover and share the learnings and achievements of public sector communities.
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