On 22 -23 August, the CoE hosted a workshop on National Career Path Development of Experts Outside of Public Service. Participants from 7 EU Member States came together to identify the strategic benefits of career path development, discuss the challenges faced at the national level, and share good practices and ways to move forward. 

With the 2023 Civilian CSDP Compact committing to “enhancing [the] availability and participation of national experts in civilian CSDP missions” and “considering opportunities for enhancing career paths”, it is important that efforts to increase secondment and career path development do not focus solely on civil servants, but also on experts outside of public service (EoPS). The secondment of EoPS to civilian CSDP missions is integral to ensuring that missions have the necessary expertise to deliver on their mandate, as such expertise is often not available within civil service structures. However, due to being situated outside of public service, EoPS often find themselves faced with different needs and challenges compared to their civil service counterparts in terms of career path development. A tailored approach is therefore required to ensure that EoPS seconded to missions are adequately supported by both their seconding agency and mission in terms of professional development and career growth. 

To address this, the CoE held a workshop on 22-23 August at our offices in Berlin on National Career Path Development of Experts Outside of Public Service. The aim of the workshop was to bring together different EU Member States to discuss the strategic benefits of career path development at the national level, reflect on existing challenges and how these may be overcome, identify good practices and lessons learned, and consider ways to move forward with the topic. 11 experts from 7 EU Member States came together to participate in these discussions, contributing their own national perspectives and experiences.
 
CoE Director, Dr Volker Jacoby, opened the workshop by emphasising the value of strengthening career path development not only at the individual level, but also for Member States to achieve their strategic ambitions. He also reiterated the importance of bringing experts together to learn from each other and pool their knowledge to achieve shared goals. 

Following these introductory remarks and an overview provided by Senior Advisor, Ms. Lisa Buijsse, participants engaged in a number of discussions regarding the strategic value of investing in career path development for EoPS, the associated challenges, and the potential pathways forward. Participants were later joined virtually by Gigi de Groot, Leadership Expert at the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC) unit at the European External Action Service (EEAS). CPCC’s new Performance and Development Process for civilian CSDP missions and its upcoming implementation was presented to participants, with an opportunity for Q&A and joint discussion on how the process can be used to enhance career path support. 

Day 2 of the workshop provided space for good practices from national contexts to be shared. Representatives from the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden presented existing approaches from their own countries and engaged in discussion with fellow participants about their activities, sharing insights and learnings. Participants were then encouraged to reflect on lessons learned from the workshop, and to think about potential next steps to bring back to their national contexts 

From discussions over the two days, it became evident that Member States share many of the same challenges and opportunities with regards to national career path development for EoPS. The value of collaboration and exchange, which the workshop helped to facilitate, was therefore noted as being greatly beneficial. The sharing of specific good practices was seen as particularly useful, as it spurred inspiration and concrete ideas for participants on possible future support for EoPS. Whilst some ‘easy wins’ were identified, so too were some more complex structural issues. The Member States were therefore encouraged to utilise the upcoming “Informal NIP Clusters” (as agreed in the Civilian CSDP Compact) to continue exchanging ideas and drive forward work on national career path development for EoPS.

The CoE is committed to continuing its work on national career path development, both within the upcoming informal clusters and through other CoE-led projects. A report capturing the discussion and findings from this workshop is forthcoming and will be uploaded here once published. For further information on EoPS and national career path development, why not visit our Knowledge Hub? 

The workshop was organised by Lisa Buijsse, Senior Advisor, and Kaisa Kopsa, Political Assistant. For further information on the workshop or the CoE’s work on National Career Path Development, please contact Lisa Buijsse, lisa.buijsse@coe-civ.eu, or Kaisa Kopsa, kaisa.kopsa@coe-civ.eu.