A total of 129 graduates received their certificates last Friday, 30th of August 2024, during the 2nd mid-year graduation held at the Somare Institute of Leadership and Governance (SILAG) in Port Moresby. The cohort of 2024 certificate course participants graduated under the following certificate programs including National Certificate in Government Leadership and Management, National Certificate in Accounting, National Certificate in Human Resource Management, National Certificate in Local Government Administration and National Certificate in Information Technology. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SILAG, Mr. Michael Babore, congratulated all graduates on successfully completing their six-month course before attaining their certificates. He stressed that SILAG aims to nurture and produce excellent public servants who can perform well in the public service for the future. “When you first started here, I advised you all to be professional, to display leadership and that there must not be any issues with you, and I am thankful for how you turned out and you will be good leaders in the years to come.” He also commended all trainers for a job well done in providing the skills and knowledge that is much needed in the respective areas of the public service workforce. Based on the theme, ‘We have come a long way, unlearning and relearning from personal relevance to life relevance,’ Chairlady of SILAG Board and Secretary of the Department of Personnel Management, Taes Sansan, shared with all graduates to understand fully the theme and to apply it in their lives, especially in the workforce and organizations they work in. “I want all of us to really understand the theme, understand the meaning of the theme and when we leave this place, we can then go back to our organizations and think on how we can improve then on after receiving our papers.” “The existence of SILAG can best be described as the quest for finding its relevance in a greater and local objective of providing efficient training to our public sector. We are here because we have a purpose to be here, and we must make that purpose known to all of us and to the country.” “We have come a long way and all of us seated here have strong ethics and characters that dictate who we are and what we intend to do in the future. In your workplace is where we promote diversity, inclusiveness and equity and with that, must go one step further in advocating the values of practicing these virtues.” In addition, Sansan further stressed on the knowledge, skills and attitude that the graduates have acquired from the institution and with that, must transform them so that they can go back and help transform their organization to build a better version of themselves and they can contribute more effectively and meaningfully to the greater good of their workplace, community and country. Meanwhile, Sansan also announced that they are also in the process of preparing an Amendment Bill under the Public Service Management Act with two reforms and one is to make the courses at SILAG compulsory for public servants to take and two, under the Marape-Rosso government Medium-Term Development Plan 4 2023-2027 policy, is for SILAG become a university by 2027. With that, she also stated that they are all working hard in ensuring that the policy comes into operation.