Catalonia to overhaul public administration school to reform civil service recruitment

Legislative overhaul and new responsibilities

The Government of Catalonia will approve a draft bill on Tuesday to reform the Public Administration School of Catalonia (EAPC). The draft legislation will grant the institution direct authority to design, implement, and update civil service examinations for the general administrative body of the Generalitat. While the Secretariat of Public Function will retain the power to determine the annual number of open positions, the EAPC will determine the schedule, content, and methodology of the recruitment competitions. The reform represents the third component of an administrative restructuring plan, following the public employment bill and the professional public management draft bill. Minister of the Presidency Albert Dalmau announced the initiative as part of an effort to modernize regional administration.

Managerial accreditation and talent recruitment

Under the proposed legislation, the EAPC will expand beyond its traditional mandate of continuing education into managerial selection and accreditation. Founded in 1912 by the Mancomunitat under Enric Prat de la Riba, the institution operates as the oldest executive training school in Europe. In 2025, the school conducted 1,694 courses that trained 163,447 participants across regional and municipal administrations. The reform will task the school with defining curricular frameworks, certifying professional competencies for public managers, and promoting public policies based on scientific evidence. The government also intends to shift entrance examinations away from memorization-based tests toward practical evaluations that attract private-sector professionals and candidates from other administrations.

One of the purposes is for the School to take a greater leading role in the public system by incorporating the selection of managerial personnel and selective processes, and accompanying in the training ecosystem public servants updated with the skills that our time requires.

Generational renewal and youth outreach

The reform addresses an upcoming retirement wave across the Catalan civil service. Regional government data indicates that between 15% and 20% of public servants, representing between 24,000 and 30,000 workers, will retire before 2030. To replace departing personnel, the EAPC will conduct outreach at universities, vocational training centers, and employment fairs to encourage young people to pursue public sector careers. The initiative operates alongside a newly launched scholarship program in which 500 students began departmental internships at the start of the academic term, with a broader goal of reaching 2,000 interns over the current legislature. Dalmau pointed to specific shortages across local bodies as a priority for the talent drive.

If we want to solve an issue like the deficit of secretaries and comptrollers, we need young people in our country to take a step forward and want to be public servants.

Parliamentary schedule and municipal cooperation

The draft bill will also expand EAPC coordination with municipal governments to facilitate personnel mobility and shared public servants across local bodies. Following approval by the Executive Council on Tuesday, the text will proceed to the Parliament of Catalonia to begin its legislative processing. The government aims to secure final parliamentary validation for the bill by late 2027. Dalmau stated that the executive will seek legislative backing from ERC, Comuns, and Junts to pass the measure.