This good practice presents the training programmes implemented by the Uruguayan social security institute, which have been deemed a substantial qualitative step forward. The strategic plan for 2011–2015 included in its lines of action “the development of modern human resource management policies, honing staff members’ skills and improving the working environment and occupational health in the organization”. With this in mind, on 11 September 2013, the Board approved the Institutional Training Plan (Plan de Formación Institucional – PFI), in which it laid out the programme of courses for 2014–2015.

The training mechanisms established previously were limited to vocational training in the strictest sense, and did not look towards staff members’ broader development or take account of their development-related preferences. The new training policy deals directly with this aspect, making room for staff members’ preferences and decisions and adopting a new development-based approach. Three programmes have been implemented: regular, vertical and horizontal. The second and third of these directly accommodate staff members’ preferences in terms of the courses and career paths they mean to pursue.