Collective Agreement Ensures More Money for Individual Competency Development

The collective agreement for 2018 reorganises the competency development of employees in the state sector. The foundation for development of state jobs (Danish abbreviation: FUSA) will be closed down, and its funds will be transferred to individual competency development.

In the previous collective agreement period, almost 75 million Danish kroner were used within the framework of FUSA for cross-functional and specific grouped focus areas.

The FUSA funds were, among others, used to support the work in large organisational transition processes and in certain special cases to support competency assessment of redundant employees. In addition, the agency supported large projects that focused, among others, on the condition and development of the organisation. However, now the money will be spent on individual competency development.

Consequently, a total of 172 million Danish kroner will be allocated for individual competency development in the collective agreement period. In the previous collective agreement period, 99 million Danish kroner were allocated for that purpose.

The agreement on individual competency development ensures funds for education and courses in addition to the money the individual schools will allocate for that purpose. Funds will be granted for a wide range of continuing professional development and further education – from competencies in the teaching of main subjects to diploma programmes.

Only schools that have a plan for competency development can apply for funds in the Agency for Competence Development in the State Sector (“Kompetencefonden”). Primary and lower secondary schools (the Danish “Folkeskole”) must apply for the funds through the Danish Allocation Agency (“Fordelingssekretariatet”), and the independent boarding schools (the Danish “efterskole”) must apply for the funds through the Independent Boarding School Association (“Efterskoleforeningen”). In this way, the foundation for more competency development than individual schools can allocate resources for has been established.

The parties joint work with competency development in the state sector

• The starting point of the new agreement has not changed. The parties have agreed to “continue the good cooperation on competency development of the employees in the state sector.”
• They must still apply for the funds through the Liaison Committee (“Samarbejdsudvalget) or the Working Environment Committee (“Samarbejds- og arbejdsmiljøudvalget”) based on the school’s competence development plan. The purpose is to connect the school’s core tasks with the individual employee’s needs for competency development.
• The Agency for Competence Development in the State Sector (“Kompetencesekretariatet”) will be responsible for consultancy in connection with the competency development of employees in the state sector, including independent schools.