In the quest to ensureprofessionalism in the public service and improve public service delivery inthe state, the Lagos State Government will continue to place a premium on humancapital development. The state governor, Mr.Babajide Sanwo-Olu stated this while launching the Learning Management System(LSM) at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium in Ikeja. Atthe inauguration, the governor said that with over 42,000 workforce, the needfor continuing training and retraining in the service was necessary.He said the launch ofthe Learning Management System “is a crystallization of the reform process,which our administration initiated to improve service delivery in publicadministration and governance.
“Itis not by chance that the Lagos State Public Service is globally acclaimed as apacesetter among other public administration and governance services in Nigeriaand Africa.”Sanwo-Olu stressed thathis administration places a premium on the competence of the public service todeliver government policies, strategies and programmes for the benefit of thepeople. “It is, therefore,necessary that we equip our public service personnel with the requisite skillsand learning tools needed to thrive in a 21st century economy and aknowledge-based environment.”
The governor said thathis administration would continue to provide opportunities for all publicservants to access career enhancement courses, training and programmes. He said: “Aswe intensify efforts to make Lagos State a 21st century economy, our peoplewill be equipped with what it takes to contribute their quota to globaldevelopment and we will ensure that our developmental activities are driven bycutting edge knowledge, innovation and technology. “it is encouraging toknow that 42,009 public servants from the various ministries, departments,agencies and parastatals have been onboarded on the platform, which has avariety of learning contents with over 4000 free, self-enrolment courses and8000 courses from the LinkedIn Learning Library.”
He encouraged otherpersonnel in the public service to emulate their colleagues by registering tocommence learning activities on the Learning Management System Portal. The Commissioner forEstablishments, Training and Pensions, Ajibola Ponnle said the dream of the LMSin Lagos State Public Service was handed to her shortly after she took officeby the Head of Service who had started discussions with the consultants. She said implementing alearning management system for the government was not just to have a globaltrend, but a radical change that was at the root of repairing public servicedelivery failures in the state.
Ponnleadded that the government used the COVID-19 lockdown as an opportunity to fasttrack our online training strategy with its first ever webinar series, taggedthe ‘Resilience series’ where the government called on experts from around thecountry in diverse fields to share knowledge with its staff.”Westarted with a small class of 100 and quickly grew to a class size of 1500 dueto the high demand and appetite for public servants to learn. I believe that weset the pace for other States and indeed the Federation with this initiative.”The LMS we arelaunching today is the first of its kind in the Nigerian Public Service.
One ofthe major challenges the administration faced was a very low penetration oftraining nominations. In the 4 years prior to the present administration, LagosState trained an average of 3000 staff at the office of Establishments andTraining. “Withthe LMS, which is an online software application for the administration,documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses andtraining programs, we have successfully onboarded 42,446 onto the platform,thanks to our online learning partner, Envivo,” she said.
