Municipal Training Centre

For more than 20 years the Centre develops, implements, administers, and creates training programmes for civil servants, organises study visits and training practices, provides consulting services, carries out researches and implements local community and civil society development programmes.

KTU Municipal Training Centre was founded in 1993 as the initiative of USA-Baltic foundation and Kaunas University of Technology.

On 23 December 2002, Municipal Training Centre was approved as the first training institution for civil servants in Lithuania by the Order No 598 of Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania.

Currently, the Centre is one of the leading centres of training civil servants in Lithuania.

The Centre’s mission: strengthening self-government in Lithuania by improving competence of municipalities’ employees through training, consultation and information services.

SMC vizija – moderni, novatoriška organizacija – savivaldybių darbuotojų kvalifikacijos kėlimo paslaugų rinkos lyderė, kurianti ir teikianti aukščiausios kokybės paslaugas/produktus ir taip įtakojanti savivaldos stiprėjimą Lietuvoje.

The Centre’s activities:

  • Trainings
  • Consultations
  • Projects
  • Researches

Activities of the Municipal Training Centre make it a unique and exclusive institution since it operates simultaneously as a training institution, centre for applied research, and authority consulting regarding the local government and community development issues. Among similar institutions operating in Lithuania, this Centre is perhaps the only that covers all of these activities.

The Centre presents the best global practices, cross-sectoral collaboration possibilities and the latest developments in the field of public administration to representatives of self-government and local communities from Lithuania and foreign countries.

Being an independent unit of KTU Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, the Centre is partnering closely with the Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania, the Civil Service Department, the Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania and other local authorities. In the Republic of Lithuania, most local authorities are using the Centre’s services.

The Centre is a member of these international organisations:

  • The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee)
  • The Standing Conference of European Public Service Training Agencies (SCEPSTA)
  • The International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA)

Contacts

Jolanta Vaičiūnienė

A. Mickevičiaus st. 37-105, Kaunas
tel. +370 (37) 40 77 20
mob. tel. +370 618 06 007
e-mail: jolanta.vaiciuniene@ktu.lt | smc@savivalda.lt

 

Trainings and services

Municipal Training Centre aims to ensure that the term “teach” gains a wider meaning: to inform, assess, consult, solve, share experiences and collaborate.

The Centre provides training for civil servants, politicians, workers of the budgetary authorities and community leaders regarding a variety of issues related to increasing operational efficiency and improving personal competences.

The Centre offers personalised to each institution training methods which are selected based on the following provisions:

  • the Centre gets acquainted with an institution, discusses its problems and clarifies expectations
  • identifies the qualification gaps
  • plans the training process and applies training solutions corresponding to the needs of the institution
  • organises workshops which may include trainings, individual consultations, assistance in the preparation of projects, etc.

The Centre provides:

  • introductory training and qualification improvement programmes for civil servants (more than 30 training programmes approved by the Civil Service Department)
  • a variety of non-formal adult education programmes (more than 100 training programmes registered in the KTU Academic information system)
  • specialised training programmes for civil servants of foreign countries

Municipal Training Centre has gathered an expert team that provides consultations to municipalities in various fields of municipal improvement:

  • regional, urban, rural, community development
  • the improvement of public administration
  • preparation of local and organisational marketing and image strategies
  • applying the principles of sustainable development in the development of territories
  • the development of innovation in municipality

The Centre also provides such services:

  • preparing strategic development plans and operational plans
  • consulting regarding issues of preparation of strategic planning documents and their implementation
  • evaluating organisation’s activities
  • preparing community development programmes (projects, trainings)
 

International activities

Activities of KTU Municipal Training Centre are well known not only in Lithuania but also abroad. Foreign countries and international organisations recognise and appreciate the Centre’s developed training programmes, its educated professionals of various fields who have knowledge and organisational experience in strengthening self-government and civil societies, and improving qualifications of civil servants.

The Centre maintains close relations, initiates and implements joint projects with civil servants training centres and municipal institutions from EU, USA and other countries. It also presents the positive Lithuanian experience and latest changes in public administration area to representatives of municipalities and local communities from Lithuania and foreign countries.

The Centre organises study visits and training programmes in Lithuania for the representatives of local and central governments and communities from European and Central Asian countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Tajikistan, The Russian Federation).

The Centre has implemented projects in collaboration with:

  • The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
  • The National Endowment for Democracy (NED)
  • The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • The Academy for Educational Development (AED)
  • The Local Government Initiative (LGI)
  • The Nordic Council of Ministers
  • The World Bank
  • The Council of Europe
  • The European Commission
  • a number of other international organisations and Lithuanian central and local government institutions

The Centre prepares and participates in the public administration capacity-building projects and provides services of:

  • preparing applications for funding from national, EU and other international funds
  • project management and consulting
 

Doctoral students