Conference Agenda

Contemporary public service development relies on two prominent approaches for professional training, candidate selection, and subsequent career development. The first approach, historically prevalent and now considered traditional, emphasizes qualifications. This model centers on the professional preparation and training of civil servants, often assessed through standardized testing, examinations, or documentary verification.

The second, more recent approach, known as the competency-based approach, introduces a distinct category to describe a high level of professional proficiency: competence. Unlike qualification requirements, competencies are less readily formalized and assessed. It is crucial to understand the unique characteristics of each approach to ensure their effective and purposeful implementation in public service training programs.

This article delves into the distinctive features, advantages, and limitations of both the qualification-based and competency-based approaches within the context of public service personnel development, recruitment, training, and career progression. It analyzes current practices within public organizations, highlighting common errors in the application of each approach, while also examining their potential to enhance the efficiency and quality of public service delivery. A comparative analysis of these paradigms provides recommendations for their integrated application within public organizations.

This article aims to foster a comprehensive understanding of the impact of qualification-based and competency-based approaches on the development of a highly effective and adaptive public service. Ultimately, this will contribute to improved functioning of public institutions and the provision of impactful public services.

Concepts such 'co-creation' and 'co-production' have emerged to describe this systematic pursuit of sustained collaboration between government agencies, non-government organizations, communities and individual citizens. Apparently, the aim is to develop policies and design services that respond to individuals' needs and are relevant to their circumstances. This study presents a well-known example of value co-creation in public transport in Taiwan through a case study approach using qualitative interviews and secondary data analysis. The question of this study is: how do public managers navigate strategically through the jungle of diverse, complex and paradoxical institutions? How do they overcome institutional barriers to successfully channel financial and non-financial resources from the public and private sectors to users in remote areas, especially in the context of multi-level/multi-centre governance theory? This study finds that the effectiveness of value co-creation programmes in public services depends on a delicate interaction between individual agency and institutional norms and structures. Successful value co-creation depends on how public service organisations navigate and optimise this interaction. The results of the research can provide insights to both academic researchers and government practitioners and enrich the current value co-creation literature.

The integration of generative AI in education and training has generated both enthusiasm and caution. This study addresses the call for advancing skills in public administration by exploring generative AI's role in innovating training methodologies for civil servants. International organizations have recognized both opportunities and challenges associated with AI in training (UNESCO 2023; European Commission 2022). While many institutions have restricted access to generative AI, others have created guidelines to explore its constructive use.

Effective AI implementation in training can enhance course quality, enable personalization, support lifelong learning, and build trust by applying AI tools throughout the training cycle: needs analysis, planning, participant support, monitoring, assessment, and analytics.

Generative AI impacts three key areas: i) Training Tools - introducing innovative tools to support syllabus design and delivery; ii) Methodologies - encouraging new teaching approaches and content development; iii) Teachers and Trainers - redefining professional roles.

AI integration enhances access to educational opportunities, personalizes learning, fosters interdisciplinarity, and saves trainers' time in lesson preparation. Possible uses of generative AI in training include:

- Virtual Tutors: Personalized support to trainees by answering FAQs, offering additional explanations, and monitoring progress

- Automated Assessments: AI tools automatically assess tasks, reducing trainers' workload and providing rapid feedback

- Co-creation of Learning Paths: AI supports the collaborative design of personalized experiences

- Personalized Learning Paths: AI analyzes data to create tailored learning journeys

- Automated Feedback: AI suggests complementary materials, resources, and activities based on trainee interests and skill levels

- Intelligent Tutors: AI-powered tutors provide real-time suggestions and guidance through complex tasks

- Data Analysis: AI analyzes large datasets to identify trends and insights.

Currently, National Schools of Government make limited use of AI for training civil servants due to a lack of expertise and challenges in understanding AI’s implications. Throughout experimentation, several challenges emerged, including resistance to technology adoption and limited AI literacy. To address these, targeted workshops and clear usage guidelines were developed.

This paper presents the findings of an applied research project conducted in 2024 by the Scuola Nazionale dell'Amministrazione (SNA) – Italian National School of Government. This research represents one of the first comprehensive implementations of AI-driven training for civil servants, providing a replicable model for other public administration training contexts.

The research questions include:

- What are the impacts of AI on training objectives, methodologies, and learning outcomes?

- How can AI be effectively used in civil service training?

- How can AI enhance training tools and learning capabilities?

The paper presents outcomes from experiments in 2024 involving AI in 15 SNA courses to define programs, select participants, create materials, design activities, and generate assessments.

Based on these results, SNA has developed guidelines for AI use in training and plans to implement AI processes across all SNA courses (approximately 250) scheduled for 2025. These findings lay the foundation for scaling AI-based training initiatives to other public administration contexts, with the potential to standardize AI-driven training across diverse government sectors.

A conversational chatbot named ChatGPT, introduced in November 2022, was among the first artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to be widely accessible and user-friendly. Its popularity among higher education students highlights its potential to enhance learning and skills development. As modern public administration requires professionals adept at navigating uncertainty and digital environments, ChatGPT provides valuable opportunities for education and skill-building. However, research on its potential, particularly in public administration education and AI advancements, remains limited and lacks empirical evidence. Therefore, this paper aims to address the research gap by examining public administration students' perceptions of ChatGPT for learning and skills development, focusing on changes between their initial and progressive. The analysis employs descriptive statistics and independent-sample t-tests on survey data from 289 public administration students in Slovenia during the first year after ChatGPT's introduction (2023/2024) and 288 students in the second year (2024/2025). The results indicate a significant increase in ChatGPT usage among public administration students, particularly for academic tasks such as summarizing, brainstorming, research assistance, and academic writing. The release of GPT-4o, with advanced features, further broadened its application to technical tasks. This shift also altered students' perceptions of ChatGPT, evolving from enhancing language skills to fostering digital competencies, although its utility for interpersonal and critical thinking skills remained limited. These findings provide educators and policymakers with evidence-based recommendations to shape the future of higher education in public administration.