In Paris on Thursday, the French government launched the second phase of its “industrialization” program to train senior civil servants in the ecological transition, with the aim of training 3,000 senior civil servants every month from September onwards.
France commits to massive green training: 3,000 managers a month for the ecological transition
Eleven months after the announcement of this training plan, the aim remains to train the 25,000 or so managers in the French state civil service in the ecological transition “by 2024”, and the 5.7 million civil servants by the end of Emmanuel Macron’s five-year term in 2027.
To achieve this objective, it was imperative to step up the pace of training, which has so far benefited only 200 central government directors and a handful of senior civil servants in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region.
“Here we are at the moment of scaling up”,
The French Minister for the Civil Service, Stanislas Guerini, told a gathering of ambassadors who had come to the Paris premises of the Institut national du service public (INSP, formerly NAE) to begin training in the ecological transition.
“We’re going to industrialize our training: from September onwards, 3,000 executives from our administration will be trained every month”, assured the Minister.
The hundred or so French ambassadors and permanent representatives present in Paris on Thursday then attended a lecture by hydrologist Emma Haziza, before breaking up into smaller groups to take part in workshops.
The 28-hour training course offered to senior civil servants is structured around three phases: understanding the “three crises” (biodiversity, climate, resources), workshops to identify means of action, and finally the application of what has been learnt in the training course in government departments.
Green training extended to all branches of the French civil service
Already well underway in the state civil service, this training has been slower to get off the ground in the local civil service, where 12,000 senior civil servants are to be trained by 2025.
“The Ministry is working with the CNFPT (the professional training body for local authorities) to strengthen synergies” between the ecological transition training courses that already exist in the local civil service and those for State and hospital executives, Stanislas Guerini’s entourage told AFP.
The CNFPT also made a commitment in March to train 100,000 territorial managers in the ecological transition over the next three years, insists the Ministry. In the hospital civil service, where 6,500 managers need to be trained by 2025, the training plan was launched in mid-July by Stanislas Guerini.
Finally, the Minister indicated on Thursday that a vast “plan for the ecological transformation of the State” would be unveiled in September,
on the occasion of the Ecological Planning Council, scheduled to take place before the summer but postponed until the autumn due to the government reshuffle.
This transformation plan will include measures such as thermal renovation of public buildings, responsible purchasing and the greening of the State’s vehicle fleet,” listed Stanislas Guerini.
It will also bring together the many sobriety plans announced since the autumn, focusing in particular on reducing gas, electricity and water consumption.
