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The National Institute for Local Studies

The National Institute for Local Studies (INET) is the school for local chief executives and senior managers. Its aim is to train top managers and future top managers of major local authorities in France (municipalities of over 40 000 inhabitants, counties (“départements”), regions, metropolitan areas…) who work in local administrations with up to 15000 agents.

The INET is for the local civil service the equivalent of the Institut national du service public - INSP (former Ecole Nationale d'Administration - ENA) for state civil service or the School of Senior Studies in Public Health (EHESP) for the health civil service.

The INET is located in the European capital of Strasbourg and is part of the National Centre for Local Civil Service (CNFPT - Centre National de la Fonction Publique Territoriale), a public body that trains over one million local civil servants throughout France per year.

Training local chief executives

The French civil service employs approximately 5.6 million people. It is the first French employer, representing one fifth of the working population.
The Local civil service consists of civil servants that work in all levels of local authorities: regions, counties (“départements”), cities, metropolitan areas, etc. The CNFPT main mission is to train all local civil servants during their entire professional career.

Within the CNFPT, the INET is responsible for training local chief executives of main local authorities (over 40,000 inhabitants). The INET trains and guides them at critical points of their careers:  
•    initial training for executive managers from administrative, technical, and cultural fields,
•    lifelong learning,
•    advice and guidance regarding job mobility. 

The INET also acts as a place for discussion, sharing expertise, and reflection allowing top managers to:  
•    bolster their skills,
•    develop their managerial practices, 
•    develop their professional network 
•    take onboard the challenges faced by local authorities. 

As such, INET contributes to a collective reflection on regional questions by producing studies and texts, and by organising events.

INET in figures

  • 4,000 regional executives or future regional executives trained every year in in-service training
  • 600 training programmes per year
  • 900 trainers per year 
  • 170 students trained every year in initial training  

A proven training model

INET’s training model is accredited by the International Commission on the Accreditation of Public Administration Education and Training Programs (ICAPA), who provide international recognition of the quality of the training.

As such INET offers a training model that is :

 ... professionalising 

INET is an applied school for public employers. It aims to train management executives so that they are directly operational for local authorities.  

At the heart of the training provided by INET are simulations of work situations, exchanges of practices and real-life case studies, in both the initial and in-service training programmes.  

The trainers at INET are from the professional world: regional directors, elected officials, executives from other public services, researchers and academics, experts and consultants etc.  

 ...multidisciplinary 

Executives and future executives from all sectors - administrative, technical, cultural and medical-social - join forces to benefit from the experience of some and the new outlook of others.  

...innovative 

INET regularly updates its training model to take any developments in teaching methods into account and to incorporate any issues related to the regional environment. The training programmes are based on a learner-centred model. They include methods of collective intelligence and design thinking.

An institute open to Europe and the world

Based in Strasbourg in the heart of Europe, INET is active in many European and international networks to build on and share its expertise in local public action, to enrich its training programmes for regional executives as regards European and international issues and to promote its training model.

The INET's European and International Mission 

The European and International Mission is a CNFPT department, based at the INET, which monitors, observes, and plans in order to provide and coordinate a national training programme covering European and international issues that local authorities face and offering comparative approaches. The Mission also represents the CNFPT in European and international networks and partnerships, particularly with other schools and institutes of public administration. 
 
The initiatives of INET's European and International Mission 

The European and International Mission leads the following initiatives: 

  • A training programme covering European and international issues for local chief executives 
  • The development of European and international partnerships and networks 
  • The reception of foreign delegations and the organisation of interships   
  • The provision of online resources (publications, comparative studies, etc.) 
  • The organisation of themed events relating to European and international issues for local chief executives.
     

INET resources for foreign institutions: 

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