Government Skills and Curriculum Unit GSCU
The Consultancy playbook, Government guidance on how to commission and engage with consultants more effectively, achieving better outcomes, better value for money and improved civil service capability through the transfer of knowledge and skills was published in May 2021. It was published at the same time as the Sourcing playbook, Government guidance on service delivery, including outsourcing, insourcing, mixed economy sourcing and contracting.
The Consultancy Playbook sets out to provide guidance on how central departments can maximise value for money when sourcing consultancy services. As part of its guidance, the playbook examines knowledge generation and transfer, and states, ‘Knowledge transfer from consultancy engagements and investing in training are two powerful levers for growing that capability,’ making note of ‘..the Government’s bold and ambitious vision for knowledge generation and transfer to complement the core consultancy skills training offer developed by the [[w/index.php?title=W/index.php%3Ftitle%3DW/index.php%3Ftitle%3DW/index.php%3Ftitle%3DW/index.php%3Ftitle%3DHttps://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-skills-and-curriculum-unit/about%26action%3Dedit%26redlink%3D1%26action%3Dedit%26redlink%3D1%26action%3Dedit%26redlink%3D1%26action%3Dedit%26redlink%3D1&action=edit&redlink=1|Government Skills and Curriculum Unit (GSCU)]]’.
The GSCU was created in September 2020. Its purpose is to design and deliver better training, knowledge and networks across the country’s civil service and public sectors to develop and maintain suitably qualified and experienced civil servants, from entry level to senior leadership positions. It is intended to support those interested in fundamental skills of public administration, such as budgeting, drafting and project planning. It will also provide teams involved with apprenticeship programmes, T-levels and other forms of schools outreach.
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