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Departmental Training

Volume 489: debated on Friday 13 March 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2009, Official Report, column 1845W, on departmental training, when the audit of skills in his Department is expected to be completed. (258145)

We have identified and defined the core skills needed to deliver the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)’s departmental strategic objectives, and existing levels of proficiency. We are also defining specialist skills which reflect the work of the FCO across its network. As part of this process we mapped skills required against roles within the organisation. The next step will be to record the skills we have throughout our work force. This will be an ongoing process which will help inform decisions on learning and development, recruitment and workforce planning.

I am placing in the Library of the House information on our skills work. The documents set out our core skills, which are compatible with Professional Skills for Government, and details and explanations of levels of proficiency. The documents also give details of the mapping exercise which identified skills within the organisation and contributed to the development of the core skills framework.