Over 1 lakh civil servants finish courses on govt training portal

Data also shows that the number of courses completed in a month rose from 15,000 in December to 37,000 in March 2023

With over 497,000 users registered by March 2023, the government’s training portal (iGOT) working under the aegis of the Karamyogi scheme for civil servants capacity building, nearly 100,000 have successfully completed courses that will help departments “gauge” their interests, documents accessed by Hindustan Times shows.

Of these, the highest number of users are trainees (officials in their first year of service). (Representational image | Unsplash)

“Of these, the highest number of users are trainees (officials in their first year of service),” an official familiar with the matter said.

“There are over 68,000 trainees registered, followed by 47,000 officials from the department of posts, 46,000 from CBDT, 38,000 from department of revenue, 25,000 from food corporation of India, 18,000 from ITBP, 14,000 from BSF, among others.”

Data also shows that the number of courses completed in a month rose from 15,000 in December to 37,000 in March 2023.

Of the top chosen courses, aside from code of conduct for employees (completed by nearly 15,000 employees), and prevention of sexual harassment (8,821), are introduction to emerging technology (6400), self leadership (5,500), understanding motivation (5,100), stress management (4,700), and Microsoft skills.

The platform offers over 300 courses.

The Karmayogi Prarambh module, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 21, includes seven different courses that cover a variety of areas.

The scheme “exhorts the civil servant to maintain a very high standard of conduct and behaviour so that he earns the trust of the people and is emulated by his peers and subordinates”.

It was cleared by the cabinet on September 2020.

In a circular released by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions, the government informed officials that the number of courses completed will help identify areas of interest and competence. Once the courses are completed, they will be added to the profile of the officials. Those “acquire most competencies/complete a greater number of courses (on the portal) will be identified and recognised by departments… this will also help the department gauge the interest of employees in different functional area”.

The official mentioned above said that scaling competencies could determine postings in future.

“The DoPT’s circular is a sign that the departments may use the system to determine interest and competencies in particular fields, which may later determine postings across departments.”

There are over 80 departments and ministries at the Centre.

At present, the postings are done on the basis of their level of seniority, domain expertise, understanding of subject by the appointments committee of cabinets, according to a second official from the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions.