On 16 August, 120 participants completed the Summer School of Coaching Excellence, an educational platform launched by the High School. For 5 days, they mastered modern trends, training technologies and educational innovations that they will be able to use as trainers in the professional training of public servants.

This year, the School’s programme included professional discussions on current European trends and relevant areas of professional development of civil servants. Experienced experts, together with the School participants, addressed key issues: whom we teach, what knowledge and skills we teach, for what purpose and with what tools.

As a result, the participants gained not only theoretical knowledge but also practical skills, mastered interactive teaching methods and received a certificate confirming their qualifications and entitling them to be included in the database of trainers of the High School.

In addition, five manuals were presented to the specialists to expand the arsenal of methods, exercises, and cases for advanced training of civil servants. These are ‘Developing the Coaching Skills of Teachers Who Train Civil Servants’, ‘Gender-Oriented Governance. A Manual for Trainers’, “Access to Public Information for Civil Servants of Local Self-Government Bodies”, “Manual on Preventing and Combating Discrimination for Civil Servants, Local Self-Government Officials and Administrative Service Providers”, and the Manual for Gender Equality Trainers “Building Gender Competencies of Civil Servants and Local Self-Government Officials”. As well as the study ‘Motivation and Barriers to Engaging Civil Servants in Coaching and Teaching: Survey Results’.

The Head of the High School, Yulia Lykhach, congratulated the now certified trainers on the training programmes for future tutors of the Council of Europe’s HELP Programme for Human Rights Education for Lawyers, psychosocial support, gender-oriented approach in the budget process, gender-based violence, and access to public information.

The High School also awarded special prizes to the best teaching practices – institutions and trainers – for their contribution to the development of professional training of public servants.

‘Wars, additional requirements for the vocational education system and teachers have shown that teaching skills alone are not enough for effective interaction. We need a high level of professional and personal competences, because a coach is primarily a mentor who helps to unlock potential and reach new heights,’ said the Head of the High School during the presentation of certificates. And we hope that the competencies, skills of emotional intelligence, psychological stability and communication will allow coaches to become not only specialists in their field, but also reliable mentors.’

The co-organisers of the Summer School 2024 are the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, the Government Commissioner for Gender Policy, UNDP in Ukraine, the United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine, UN Women in Ukraine, the EU Project ‘Support to Comprehensive Public Administration Reform in Ukraine’, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Council of Europe’s HELP (Human Rights Education for Lawyers) Project for Ukraine, and the NGO UA Experts.

In total, this year’s event was attended by over 300 representatives of state and local authorities, higher education institutions and professional development centres, as well as international and Ukrainian experts.