In the last 3 years, the Covid-19 pandemic has globally accelerated the already existing developments on the digitization of important sectors of the economy. This transformation has decisively influenced all public and private organizations towards the adoption of a new division of labor, in which technology, in its various forms, takes on an increasingly pivotal role. At the same time, it is commonly agreed that the recovery strategy from the Covid-19 pandemic — which remains a challenging issue for governments — must take into account the principles of sustainable development and social cohesion.

In this field, the challenges that public administrations have to face are even greater as they need to make a significant “leap” for the digitization of their services and their adjustment within the requirements of the private sector.

As shown by a recent study by the Observatory for Innovation in the Public Sector of the OECD, while the public sector plays a critical role in the implementation of policies for development and social cohesion, it simultaneously faces significant structural problems in empowering its executives to support these policies.

According to another study by the World Economic Forum, a key way to address this gap is by strengthening the skills of public sector employees. And while much of the global debate deals with the development of individual digital skills, a more holistic approach to reorganizing the public sector through systematic needs mapping and continuous skills development remains largely fragmented.

Also, according to the ‘Complexity Insights’ dashboard, European countries face many challenges that impact the level of their business environment complexity.  Lack of skills in the public sector and local government is one of the main challenges.

ENTREpreneurial skills in the PUBLic sector: a digital approach (EntrePubl) project aims at the development of entrepreneurial thinking in the public sector in the European area. More specifically, the project seeks to develop a comprehensive training path to enable public employees to think differently about their role in the organization, to handle problems and challenges as potential opportunities, and to see themselves as co-creators, thus developing their “sense of initiative and entrepreneurship”. By supporting the development of an entrepreneurial mindset as well as digital skills/digital literacy, the aim is to develop skills crucial to enhancing collaboration and identifying potential interventions in the daily work of public sector executives. In this way, the strengthening of human capital that can contribute to higher efficiency and the integration of innovation in public administration is sought.

The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ program and supported by 8 partners active in the academic, business, non-profit and public sectors in the European area. Their partnership is a comparative advantage for the strengthening of new good practices in the European public sector as it contributes to the mobilization of a wider innovation ecosystem to strengthen strategic interventions for Innovation in the European space.

Stay tuned for more news on the ENTREPUBL project!