Germany’s Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) has submitted its proposals to the German government for an overhaul of training for civil servants. Faced with hiring difficulties, the BIBB recommends three focus areas: ramping up the digital skills-related offering, developing vocational training to increase the possibilities for internal promotion, and external recognition through certification.

In 2017, the Public Service Commission of Canada carried out a name-blind recruitment pilot project in 17 organisations (following the name-blind approach used in the UK since 2015). This project revealed that the name-blind approach had little impact on the screening of candidates from visible minorities, but it led to a significant decrease in the number of non-visible minority candidates screened. Therefore, there are no plans to mainstream the name-blind process for the time being.

The municipality of Chalons-en-Champagne is the first local authority in France to launch a project aimed at identifying talent in local government. It aims to broaden the career possibilities for public employees seeking to change jobs or careers. The HR department has trained three “talent referral managers”, and a personalised coaching programme was set up. The initial results are promising: of the 68 public employees who volunteered for the programme, nearly half have already changed jobs.