Within the project of Strengthening HR Capacities in the Lebanese Public Sector, and as an extension of cooperation between OMSAR, PLANET and ENA financed by the European Union, the design and development of 5 training programs was initiated, namely: Leadership; Communication; Public Policies; Change Management; and Quality Management provided by QMS Engineers on the 11th and 12th of January 2017.
The proposed scope of the workshop was:
1. ISO Overview
2. ISO 9001 in brief
3. Simple interpretation of the ISO 9001 clauses
4. Explanation and implementation of some of the basic requirements as per standard
The objectives of the workshop were:
5. To familiarize attendees with the ISO in general, and to present an overview of the QMS based on the ISO 9001 Standard in particular
6. To identify significant new and enhanced requirements within ISO 9001:2015
7. To present the PDCA methodology as the foundation of the implementation
8. To present the SMART approach in setting quality objectives
9. To present the data analysis methodology as the foundation of corrective/preventive measures as well as continual improvement
10. To equip attendees with some practical tools, techniques for QMS implementation, especially in regards to:
1. Quality policy
2. Process approach
The targeted audience was Top Management Team Members, Heads of Departments, Quality Management Department Members, and Potential Successors for specific senior positions, and any other attendees interested in the topic who came from the Civil Service Board (CSB) in the four Ministries of Lebanon: the Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Industry.

Incorporating real case studies and interactive multimedia, the workshop brought the subject to life and catered for all learning styles to enable learners to make more informed transparent decisions that become embedded in their daily operational rhythm at the ministries; the workshop content focused on promoting the adoption of a process-based approach within the quality management system's development, implementation and its effectiveness' improvement, which is in turn based on the continuous improvement cycle.

With over 30 delegates attending from four ministries, the event was a great success with the delegates able to learn from subject matter experts in the field of quality management across a diverse range of industries.
The skills gap was also raised and hopefully the event encouraged the attendees to leave the event with new ideas on how to make their jobs easier in the future in terms of quality management.