Access to public service on equal terms

SOCIEUX+, a European Union initiative focussing on social protection and employment in association with FIIAPP, is cooperating with Costa Rica’s General Civil Service Directorate in an initiative that aims to facilitate access to public service on equal terms and to make it more efficient and effective. 

The action, which was launched in May 2021 with an exploratory mission, is scheduled to run until April 2022, with four activities. The exploratory mission, carried out in situ in May 2021, sought to diagnose management and recruitment processes of administrative and teaching public personnel in the Costa Rican civil service. 

The SOCIEUX+ team, comprising two Spanish public experts, Sonsoles Jiménez and Rosa Almela, both officials of the Valencia Regional Education Council, carried out initial fieldwork to assess the viability of a technical cooperation action and prepare a work plan in agreement with the General Civil Service Directorate. This plan will help transform and automate recruitment and staff selection processes in the administrative, educational and artistic fields. 

The action seeks to implement a more transparent model that stimulates the efficiency and effectiveness of the administration in filling positions, in both the administrative and teaching fields. It provides an updated and accessible offering of employment that takes into account the needs of General Civil Service Directorate institutions and ministries, under an approach aimed at attracting more competent and suitable civil servants for public service, in line with the challenges demanded by the environment. 

During the first activities in August and September, the SOCIEUX+ experts met with representatives from the recruitment, staff selection and teaching sectors, as well as with others from the information technology and human resources areas. They also interviewed officials from the Ministries of Public Education, Culture and Youth, Public Works and Transportation, as well as representatives from a number of public institutions that make employment requests to the General Civil Service Directorate. These meetings gave them a good overall view of the whole process. 

During the activity, Costa Rica’s Vice President Mr Marvin Rodríguez was briefed on the mission’s objectives. He showed great interest in the aims of the research mission and highlighted the importance of technical cooperation activities as a strategic tool that allows the sharing of high-quality technologies, knowledge, experiences and resources. 

During the final meeting with the General Civil Service Directorate, in which both the director general of the Civil Service and all the area directors took part, the SOCIEUX+ team shared the results of the research mission and its conclusions. It was agreed to undertake a series of actions that will allow the administration department on the one hand to modernise and automate recruitment and staff selection processes and on the other to establish the procedures for conducting specific skills tests and an application guide for human resources offices to help them validate the suitability of candidates for the positions offered by the Costa Rican General Civil Service Directorate.