The innovative ELIPS seeks to develop and prepare a cohort of young leaders to lead and manage the increasingly complex Public Service.
The last cohort of the Emerging Leaders in the Public Service (ELIPS) will receive certificates during an awards ceremony in Johannesburg, Gauteng province, on Friday, 21 February 2025.
An innovative coaching and mentoring initiative, the ELIPS programme, launched in April 2023, is the brainchild of Ms Yoliswa Makhasi, the Director General (DG) of the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). Since its launch, four cohorts of about four hundred young people have gone through the programme to prepare them for future leadership and management roles in the Public Service.
The ELIPS programme aims to equip young public servants with the necessary skills and knowledge to become effective leaders in the Public Service. In addition to the foundational activities, the ELIPS programme revolves around the delivery of five coaching and mentoring blocks, which progressively cover the following areas:
- Leading Self
- Leading Change
- Leadership Effectiveness
- Leading Teams
- Leading Performance
The ELIPS programme has the potential to contribute towards building a leadership pipeline for building a capable, ethical, and developmental public service into the future, according to DG Makhasi, observing that “there is a gap in how we mentor young people and upcoming leaders in the Public Sector”.
In the long-term, the programme seeks to contribute to changing some of the unsettling workplace demographics in the country and the Public Service in particular, which includes the low representation of young people in the world of work relative to their population.
Of the 1,2 million public servants, for example, only 24,5 % fall under the category of youth, yet they constitute some 37% of the population and are growing, according to the figures previously shared by Mr Nyiko Mabunda, at the time Acting Deputy Director General: Human Resources Management and Development (HRMD).
When it comes to young individuals in leadership and managerial roles, the results are much worse, with just 1.3% in senior management and 6.7% in middle management.
As the ELIPS intervention comes to an end, it is expected that the scores of alumnae will not only change the face of the Public Service but also influence and provide fresh ways of reimagining how the Government should work.
