Human Resource Development Strategy and Promotion of HRD Concepts

Human Resource Development Strategy and Promotion of HRD Concepts - Czech Republic

By developing and presenting a national strategy and promoting and supporting the application of a strategic approach in workplaces, the project will serve a wide range of beneficiaries, including all public and private organizations and institutions that are stakeholders of HRD and are interested in promoting HRD in the Czech Republic. The main beneficiaries will be the Government ministries, the employers organizations, the trade unions, the universities and other educational and training establishments as well as other organizations and institutions that are able to influence the HRD systems and processes by making strategy and policy decisions, providing policy guidance and support, mobilizing, allocating and providing necessary resources, and putting a strategic approach into effect in their own context.

The project "Human Resource Development Strategy for the Czech Republic and Promotion of HRD Concepts" consists of two sub-projects:

Both sub-projects pursue a common wider objective, but different specific objectives. They are implemented in parallel and both teams and the NTF are co-operating closely.

The specific objective of sub-project A Human Resource Development Strategy for the Czech Republic is to formulate and present, after necessary discussions and consultations, proposals for HRD strategy in the Czech Republic.

The specific objective of sub-project B Promotion of HRD Concepts is to promote and support the adoption and practical application of a new conceptual and strategic approach to human resource development at sector, region and organization levels in the Czech Republic, using the outputs and results of sub-project A Human Resource Development Strategy for the Czech Republic.

The contract for the sub-project A Human Resource Development Strategy for the Czech Republic was awarded to a consortium led by the Dutch-Czech consulting firm DHV CR and including the Czech Consilium Group. The consortium has formed a high-level team of Czech and European experts in educational and training strategies and policies, able to view HRD issues from various perspectives. The purpose is to assist the NTF in defining HRD strategies likely to provide adequate responses to the challenges of accession to the EU, growing international competition and a better utilization of the country´s human capital for economic and social development. Practical proposals on how to stimulate and apply life-long learning in a period of fast technological and structural changes and at the threshold of information society are being developed. Therefore the project is being executed in close cooperation with the key stakeholders of HRD, including the government, the private sector, the social partners, the academia and the civic society. The project closely collaborates with the Ministry of Labour in developing life-long learning strategies in support of employment promotion, and with the team of the "Challenge for the 10 Million" initiative launched in October 1999 by the Ministry of Education and aimed at reforming the Czech education system.

The interdisciplinary project team consists of leading Czech and foreign experts: Ivan Fišera (the team leader), František Bělohlávek, Pavla Burdová, Ladislav Čerych, Miroslav Hučka, Věra Jourová, Jaroslav Kalous , Michal Karpíšek, Václav Kleňha, Petr Matějů, Daniel Munich, Barbora Slintáková, Jan Švejnar, Angela Taylor, Jiří Zlatuška and others. The project team works in a close co-operation with the National Training Fund.

The sub-project B Promotion of HRD Concepts - is being implemented by a consortium led by the Dutch Fontys International and including the Irish FAS and the global professional service firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The main objective is to provide organizations in the private and public sectors with concepts and tools for assessing their HRD practices, strengths and weaknesses and applying a more conceptual and systematic approach to HRD, consistent with their business development and restructuring strategies. The project is producing and testing practical guides to strategic HRD, organizing workshops for HRD policy makers and managers, and developing case studies demonstrating practical HRD approaches deserving to be widely disseminated and replicated.

Members of the project team are: Pieter Bon, Hendrik Strikkers, Herman Sonneveld, Antonius Cornuit, Job Arts, Jan Veerman, Jack Horgan, Eric Durkin, David Parish, Dana Formánková, Květoslava Peerová, František Kastyl, Helena Pískovská, Oldřich Schwarz, Maarten Maresch.

The National Training Fund co-ordinates the projects. It is glad to receive new ideas, lessons of experience and practical suggestions that could be of help to the project teams and should not be ignored by them. Final results of both sub-projects will be available in the first months of 2001.

EMP/SKILLS - Skills and Employability Department