Home Activities Two-Day Training for Staff of Secretariats and Departments of Parliament, Marina Hotel, Dodowa, 29 November – 1 December, 2008
Two-Day Training for Staff of Secretariats and Departments of Parliament, Marina Hotel, Dodowa, 29 November – 1 December, 2008 PDF Print E-mail

The Parliamentary Centre, under the CIDA funded Parliamentary Committee Support Project II organized a two-day training for selected parliamentary staff from four departments of the Ghana Parliament namely Parliamentary Relations, Majority and Minority Secretariats, and Clerk’s Secretariat of Parliament. All these departments offer direct services to the Speaker, Members and Staff of Parliament.

These departments are also mandated to provide administrative and technical support to Parliament and its involvement in the activities of all international affiliated Parliamentary bodies such as the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Pan-African Parliament. Unfortunately the needed skills and competencies required to meet such standards are absent and thus the Centre’s objective to carry out this training.

This workshop formed part of efforts aimed at increasing awareness, knowledge, and skills of a cross section of Parliamentary Staff to enable them carry out their work in an efficient and effective manner.   The training consisted of seven sessions:
  • “Parliaments and the Role of Effective Staff Support”
  • “The Importance of Records Management in Parliament”
  • “Preparing Logistical Memos, Briefing Notes and Bios”
  • “Human Relations and Communications”
  • “Presentation Skills”
  • “Time and Stress Management”
  • “Introduction to International Relations”
 The specific objectives of the training were:·         To assist Parliamentary Staff understand the importance of a professional presence on the job ·         To improve critical communication  and presentation skills ·         To improve staff ability to organize, plan, prioritize and self-manage ·         To provide staff with a set of tools for use in their work which can be adapted to suit various situationThe very interactive seven sessions of the two-day workshop concluded with the parliamentary staff acknowledging the usefulness and relevance of the training to their work and their willingness to implement and share with their colleagues what they have learnt. The training, they emphasized will definitely change the way they do things from now on since they have enhanced their knowledge and skills. A total of twenty eight (28) participants took part in the workshop made up of twenty two (22) parliamentary staff, four (4) Staff of the Parliamentary Centre and two Resource Persons on Records Management and Communication Skills who were the trainers.