Training for policy capacity: A practitioner’s reflection on an in-house intervention for civil servants, students, and post-secondary graduates in Canada
| Author | Bobby Thomas Cameron |
| DOI | 10.1177/01447394211019458 |
| Published date | 01 July 2022 |
| Date | 01 July 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
2022, Vol. 40(2) 231 –246
Article
Training for policy capacity:
A practitioner’s reflection
on an in-house intervention
for civil servants, students,
and post-secondary
graduates in Canada
Bobby Thomas Cameron
University of Prince Edward Island, Canada; Government of Prince Edward Island, Canada
Abstract
A substantialamount of scholarly work focuseson conceptualizing, theorizing and studying
the policy capacity of governments. Yet, guidance for practitioners on developing policy
capacity training programs is lacking. In this article, I reflect on my experience as a public
servant in the provincial government of Prince Edward Island where I designed and
implementedthe Policy Capacity Developmentand Mentorship Program for civilservants,
recent graduates and students. In this article, I offer a descriptive overview of the
framework and logic of the program and discuss how I integrated policy capacity theory.
This articlemay serve other practitioners who seekto implement similar programsin their
respective organizations and provides a base for future interventions. The article also
offers thoughts on practitioner-led collaboration with academics and recommendations
for those who would like to establish similar programs in their organizations.
Keywords
Policy capacity, training, reflexivity, civil servants, government
Introduction
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) writes that
“today’s civil servants are addressing problems of unprecedented complexity in societies
Corresponding author:
Bobby Thomas Cameron, Applied Communication, Leadership, and Culture Program, University of Prince
Edward Island, 550 University Avenue, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3, Canada; Strategic Policy and Evaluation
Division, Department of Agriculture and Land, Government of Prince Edward Island, 11 Kent St, PO Box 2000,
Charlottetown, PE C1A 7N8, Canada.
Emails: trcameron@upei.ca; bcameron@gov.pe.ca
Teaching Public Administration
ªThe Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/01447394211019458
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232 Teaching Public Administration 40(2)
that are more pluralistic and demanding than ever. Civil servants need the right skills to
keep pace” (OECD, 2017: 1). Skills for developing public policy are noted by the OECD
and researchers (Hartley et al., 2019) as being critical for ensuring that civil servants can
address rapidly changing “wicked problems” requiring the provision of new forms
evidence, information and solutions. As a result, civil servants need to be able to know
how to complete complex problem solving activities (Sandfort and Gerdes, 2017). A key
question arising is, what types of training can governments offer civil servants to
improve their policy analytical capacity?
Graduate-level public administration and public policy programs aim to prepare
students for future public service careers by connecting them with civil servants (see
Godwin and Meek, 2016; Straussman, 2019). This practice acts as a mechanism to bridge
a theory-practice gap, one which is similar to the long-standing divide in the discipline of
public administration itself. During my own Master’s- and Ph.D.-level studies in public
policy, I observed professors connecting theory and practice through case studies, pre-
sentations from government officials and internship programs (see Johns, 2008, for an
overview of the case study method in Canadian public administration). Academic-
practitioner collaborations in public administration are not without their challenges
(see Straussman, 2019). However, these types of collaborations have nevertheless been
pursued for their potential to enrich learning experiences for students.
Less is known about the experience of practitioners in leading, designing and
implementing their own interventions to lessen the theory-practice gap and improve the
policy capacity of civil servants. This space tends to be dominated by the work of
academics and university institutions. In a special issue of Teaching Public Adminis-
tration on reflexivity (2013: 31, 1) it was argued that we need to go beyond traditional
teaching and locate learning in contemporary and relevant contexts (Ahmad et al., 2013:
5). In this article, I reflect on my experience as a practitioner in the provincial Gov-
ernment of Prince Edward Island, Canada where I developed and implemented the
Policy Capacity Development and Mentorship Program (PCDMP) (“the intervention”).
It is a relatively small intervention, located in one Division in a provincial department.
The intervention is a nine-unit learning and work journey that is framed by the concepts
of policy capacity, mentorship, applied research, reflexivity and reflection. It uses core
readings combined with policy projects to train students, recent graduates and other
policy staff in core skills and knowledge for policy analytical capacity (www.prin-
ceedwardisland.ca/pcdmp).
I will begin by describing the context of the intervention. I then discuss concepts that
are manifested in the PCDMP’s design. This discussion shows how practitioners can
lessen the theory-practice divide by intentionally integrating academic knowledge into
training programs. Following that, I describe the structure, elements and purpose of the
program. This includes observations from participants and the results of a pre- and post-
self-assessment questionnaire with a small sample. The article concludes by reflecting
on my experience with the PCDMP and what it means for practitioners, mentors and
academics. I propose that looking forward, practitioners should occupy a more con-
sequential role in the design and delivery of in-house training programs such as the
PCDMP. Policy workers with graduate degrees in public administration and policy can
2Teaching Public Administration XX(X)
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