About us
MI - Institute for Local Administration Prague is a semi-governmental [i.e. partly financed from the national budget] organisation set up by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic to carry out tasks related to the education of the officials of self-governing territorial units established by the country’s administrative division, i.e. regions and municipalities in the Czech Republic.
The Czech Republic has implemented a combined model of the execution of state administration. This means that the Ministries’ civil servants execute state administration only at the central level. The execution of certain competencies of state administration has been devolved “to self-governing units. The officials of self-governing units are therefore in charge of executing the self-government competencies of self-governing units as well as selected competencies of state administration devolved to the self-governing units. The Prague Institute for Local Administration is responsible for educating these officials.
The education of officials is based on the principle of a pyramid: the system of life-long education has been designed to support the official’s professional development and career promotion from the moment of joining public administration up to and including the time of holding a managerial position at an office/authority of a self-governing unit.
The education of self-governing units’ officials is governed by Act No. 312/2002 on Officials of Self-governing Units and Changes to Certain Laws, and each official is obliged to continuously improve and extend his/her qualifications through participation in
- Initial training programmes;
- Training for the testing, and the testing itself, of special professional competence;
- Continued education;
- Education for senior officials and heads of offices.
The Institute designs all educational programmes based on the results of its own scientific and research activities. A comprehensive analysis of the topic/issue in question, the target group, etc. is carried out before developing each of the educational programmes. The teaching departments then design the various educational projects based on the results of this analysis also in co-operation with the respective trainer.
MI - Institute for Local Administration Prague offers a complete range of accredited educational programmes for all fields of officials’ competencies, both self-governing competencies as well as the execution of state administration devolved to them. There are four modules of these programmes, coinciding with the above categorisation.
The Institute also offers a series of educational activities for elected members of self-governing units’ assemblies and also for groups of self-governing units’ employees having specific professions, whose life-long education is not covered by Act No. 312/2002.
MI - Institute for Local Administration Prague publishes its comprehensive offering of educational programmes in a catalogue produced as a supplement to the Czech Government’s Public Administration weekly, and also on its own website. The print run of the catalogue is 1,000 copies, which are distributed to the personnel departments of regional authorities; local authorities of municipalities vested with extended competencies; and other larger towns and boroughs.
All information about the education and training of public administration officials, including answers to the most frequently asked questions concerning the ways and formal requirements of applying and registering for the Institute’s qualifications upgrading programmes can be found on the Institute’s website at www.institutpraha.cz. The website presents detailed information, including the catalogues of the various educational projects organised by the Institute for Prague’s local administration bodies in 2003.
MI - Institute for Local Administration Prague organises all of its programmes and projects at its own training centre in Benešov near Prague. The training centre is an integrated facility comprising lodging quarters, a classroom area, and catering areas.