PIPS Parliamentarians Orientation Program offers thematic capacity building workshops in 23 areas of parliamentary significance in addition to an elaborate New Members Orientation Program. The most popular courses for parliamentarians include orientation sessions on topics such as: rules of procedure & business of the house, question hour; law making process, assessing legislation & legislative research; Budget process/analysis as well as committee work and public hearings. In addition, the Institute holds comprehensive professional development workshops on parliamentary office management, report and minutes writing for committee staff and parliamentary human resource management.
The 2008-09 saw the commencement of a more robust system of trainings by the PIPS. For the first time in Pakistan, PIPS successfully conducted orientation programs for the elected legislators of the National and provincial assemblies as well as Senators on topics, such as: “Politician to Parliamentarian”, “Constitutional Authority of Parliament”, “Parliamentary History”, “Rules of Procedures”, “Business of the House”, “Parliamentary Privilege”, “Question Hour”, “Committees of Parliament”, “Legislative Process”, “Research and Informational Support for Legislators”, “Parliamentarians and the Budget”, “Parliamentarian as Legislators”, and “Constituency Relations”. During these interactive sessions, parliamentarians took keen interest as reflected in their lively discussions during these sessions.
The Institute also has an elaborate Training of the Trainers Program for developing lead facilitators in parliamentary areas from among legislators and senior parliamentary officials. PIPS training wing has laid out elaborate Training Standards and Procedures to run its professional development courses for parliamentary functionaries.
The Institute has to date developed modules in 21 areas of parliamentary significance. These include modules on legislative research, assessing and drafting legislation, Question Hour, parliamentary history, conflict resolution, Business of the House, budget process, Parliamentary Privileges and Code of Conduct, constituency relations, basic computer skills, software module for librarians, English language, etc. and a Youth Guide on Parliament. Most of these comprehensive training modules consist of a Facilitator’s Guide, a Participants’ Book and a Power Point Presentation developed according to the PIPS Training Standards and Procedures, and these cater for one week thematic professional development courses.
Accordingly no less than 270 workshops for parliamentarians, journalists, members of civil society and staff of the six houses, have been held. PIPS has hosted different modes of professional development programs like policy seminars, issue workshops, skill enhancement courses for Members & Secretariat staff of Senate, National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies. More than 4400 participants, including MPs and Secretariat staff as well as journalists covering the Parliament, have attended these programs in the last three years.
PIPS intends to commence annual professional development programs for three tiers of the parliamentary functionaries from national and provincial legislatures, which include five week Parliamentary Management Course for officers of BPS 17-18, a 15 days Senior Management Parliamentary Course for BPS 19-20 and 10 days Parliamentary Leadership Course for BPS 20-22 respectively. Similarly officers of ministries dealing with Parliament and Parliamentary Committees are also being oriented with regard to their role and responsibility.
PIPS training services aim to:
PIPS Training Component is well structured and resourced to:
The training modules are based on the stringent PIPS Training Standards and Procedures. These modules make effective use of the following training methodologies:
Visual Aids, such as Power Point Slides, Flip Charts and Video Clips are also used to make the learning environment more effective.
To create meaningful learning environments, the focus is on partnering international legislative specialists with experienced Pakistani legislative practitioners. Till date, resource persons have included former MP of the British House of Commons, retired Clerk of the Wisconsin Senate, international budget analyst, legislative drafting specialists, former Pakistani legislators, former Pakistan Secretariat officers, media specialists, etc.