The National School of Government is rolling-out the Disability Mainstreaming Course. The training materials are available in Braille and Software enabled programmes. Training and development in the Public Service is framed by a range of policy statements and legislation, particularly the White Paper on Public Service Education and Training, the White Paper on Human Resource Management, the Public Service Regulations, and the Strategic Framework on the Development of Human Resources in the Public Service.
Ultimately, through this course, we want to create a positive reaction in the Public Service, a reaction that will bring about change that will open-up a space for Persons with Disabilities to assume their rightful position in our democratic society, where there is respect for their human dignity and where they experience equality and freedom.
This course is framed in the context of the Public Service ethos and its partnership with disability movement organisations. It is designed in accordance with the objectives of the JobACCESS Strategic Framework on the Recruitment, Employment and Retention of Persons with Disabilities in the Public Service, along with its Implementation Guidelines and Plan, and the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, (WPRPD), 2015. The strategic objective of the course is, in the main, to contribute to the transformation of the Public Service workplace, and to also impact on the social
transformation of society through appropriate service delivery, by valuing diversity, removal of discrimination against Persons with Disabilities, and contributing to the vision of universal design and access.
The purpose of this training course is to facilitate the inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in the workplace, and removing barriers that prevent their successful participation in the job market. Learners can develop presentations and raise awareness to the benefit of supporting a diverse workplace, and with benefits to the employers, employees, customers, and the community. Learners will be equipped to know what the legal requirements, the Codes of Good Practice and manuals on the employment of Persons with Disabilities are.
Qualifying learners are capable of: Communicating benefits and rights of Persons with Disabilities in the workplace; facilitating equitable representation for Persons with Disabilities in the workplace and conducting interventions to remove barriers for Persons with Disabilities in the workplace. Also, qualifying learners will be able to: Apply the DPSA Monitoring and Evaluation Framework; effectively report on disability issues in their organisations; understand the needs and challenges of Persons with Disabilities in the workplace; understand the needs and challenges of the employer (manager) appointing and managing a Person with a disability in the workplace; compile effective action plans for their organisations; advise line managers and human resource units on disability management issues in the workplace and a standardised approach and strategies aimed at organisational implementation of the Strategic Framework.
Overall, the 5-day training will result in enhanced skills, knowledge and abilities of disability programme managers. Specific outcomes as outlined in the Unit Standard from which the course credits are derived are as follows:
The National School of Government participates in the Disability forums convene by the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities. The National School of Government signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities for the implementation of a customised Disability Mainstreaming Course. The Agreement is funded by the United Nations Population Fund aimed at capacitating officials in the mainstreaming of disability into operations.
The NSG also offers Championing Anti-Discrimination in the Public Service as a free, online course. This Course has been specifically developed for public servants to intervene in, and ultimately to end, discrimination in the public service, amongst public servants, and by public servants against the public. The public sector is an extension and reflection of society. Yet, it is this very public sector that is compelled to uphold, promote and protect a legislative and ethical higher ground. The public servants are responsible for implementing the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 and Medium-
Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) 2019-2024, which are based on promoting and protecting the South African Constitution and Bill of Rights, in addition to meeting continental (AU Agenda 2063) and international (UN SDGs) obligations.
The Course includes the complexities of difference, power and privilege, the need to claim agency rather than victimhood, to routinely and safely intervene when witnessing discrimination, and to act as allies to the marginalised. In this way, the public sector will contribute significantly to building a society in which everyone’s rights are realised, a public sector that is compassionate, just and ethical, for a capable, developmental state. The purpose of this Course is to examine our beliefs, attitudes, thinking and behaviour to strengthen public sector officials to be capable of combatting discrimination wherever they may find it. This Course provides information on the key concepts, principles and application of Championing Anti-Discrimination in the Public Service. The participants are encouraged to continue with conversations about this programme content with peers, colleagues, friends and family, privately and in public. It is designed to be accessible for all public servants. Throughout the course participants do ‘Knowledge Checks’ facilitated by the NSG on-line system. They are only deemed to have succeeded at the course, and so to be eligible for a certificate of completion once they have achieved 75% at the Knowledge Checks. Participants will be awarded a Certificate of Completion after completing the programme, which they can print out for themselves online.
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