This course is accredited by the Institute of Commercial Management (ICM) for a CPD award.

Most public servants are either directly or indirectly involved in the management or use of state financial and other resources. It is impossible to go through one's career without being involved in expenditure control, reviews, VFM assessments, section budgets, etc. Therefore an understanding of how public financial administration works is essential. However, public sector workers, with little or no financial training, may be assigned or promoted to positions which entail significant financial responsibilities and reporting duties. At this point, financial skills and competence in financial procedures, budgetary preparation and management are essential, regardless of the areas worked in.

This course was devised specifically as a means of providing an excellent way for Irish public sector entities to develop the financial planning and control functions among their staff and provide them with the opportunity to upskill and develop their expertise in this area. The course has a strong practical emphasis in order to ensure that the employer organisation gains from having officials on their staff who have completed it successfully.

Comments from past delegates on this course

"The lecturers were very good, in particular Mr. Tony Foley."

"I would definitely recommend the course, the group worked very well together and everyone's personal experience of the topics added to the learning."

"I ed this course in that its objectives as set out originally clearly met my requirement to get an overview of the public finance mechanisms and context. The course clearly met all of its objectives with an excellent array of instructors who were fully familiar with the combination of legislative requirements and their practical application."

"Thank you for the recent lectures you gave as part of the financial management course in the PAI. I found them very informative and useful. I now feel that I have a better understanding of basic accounting terms and how they are applied. The budgeting section was also very relevant as it is part and parcel of a lot of the work I do. I have come across many examples of projects where their costs had not been budgeted correctly and they have subsequently run into difficulties. I found the group work on managing budgets made me think of all the elements that need to be included in a budget which will help me when examining and/or making project applications."