PPP Center, Australia Awards boost partnership with new training program

The Public-Private Partnership Center (PPP Center) of the Philippines and Australia Awards in collaboration with the Queensland University of Technology continue to boost its strong partnership through a new training program offered to the Center’s officials and staff. On July 15, 2020, the Contract Management Short Course for the Center was formally opened through an online ceremony.

His Excellency Steven J. Robinson AO, Australian Ambassador to the Philippines led the opening ceremony highlighting the value of the Australian government partnership with the Philippines and its experience in PPPs.

“As a valued partner and friend of the Philippines, we pride ourselves in providing the public sector with world class competency and capacity building in fields relevant to your organization. The Australia is regarded as a country with wealth of experience in public-private partnerships in infrastructure development”, Ambassador Steven J. Robinson said.

“The Australian government welcomes the opportunity to provide assistance to the Philippines in the area of infrastructure development. The lessons that we have learned in this area particularly in contract management will be shared with you”, he added.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the PPP Center, Undersecretary Ferdinand A. Pecson expressed its gratitude to the Australian government through the Australia Awards and Alumni Engagement Program (AAEP) for the delivery of the contract management course and continuous support it provides in building the capacity of agency’s officials and staff.

“We thank the resource persons from the Queensland University of Technology who shall deliver the course. We once again thank the program team, the Australia Awards and Alumni Engagement Program, for continuing to support the PPP Center’s capacity building program. And last but not the least, the government of Australia for the very strong bilateral relationship that has helped the Philippines advance its economic goals not the least of which is in infrastructure building”, Executive Director Pecson said.

The AAEP has contributed significantly to building the capacity of the PPP Center deliver its mandate. The Contract Management Short Course is only one of the capacity building initiatives offered by the AEEP. Nineteen (19) employees will be attending the said course that will run until first quarter of 2019. The objectives of the training program is to increase the competencies of PPPC employees to manage contracts, administer contracts, and manage professional relationships with parties, among others.

In 2018, AAEP assisted the PPP Center in conducting an organizational training needs assessment, which helped identify the focused areas of the Center’s capacity building program for the next three (3) years. Since then, the AAEP has provided scholarship opportunities to four (4) PPP Center staff to different universities in Australia. It has also conducted various short courses to the agency in (i) Public Sector Project Management; (ii) Policy Research and Development; (iii) Technical Writing; (iv) Strategic Workforce and Succession Planning; (v) Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction; (vi) Gender, Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion; and (vii) Diploma Course on Organizational Development. Seventeen (17) employees have participated in these short courses. END