The impact of qualification on the professional trajectories of federal civil servants

Abstract

The objective of this research is to contribute to the debate on the returns from investments in the continuing professional education of public servants. We used a data set that gathers information about the participation in courses at the National School of Public Administration (Enap) with the socioeconomic characteristics of all public servants of the federal executive between 2006 and 2021. Descriptive statistics show a sharp growth, especially in courses with an average workload between 20 and 40 hours, and also, a drop in the number of participants in 2020, with the shift from in-person courses to the remote modality. In general, it was observed that courses with a larger workload had higher pass rates. Finally, we took advantage of the panel data to estimate the Probit model, linear regressions, and Poisson, both with and without fixed effects, which indicate that even after completing an additional training, the employee has a greater chance of occupying a different position, as well as, a greater opportunity to change agencies, having a higher remuneration. Thus, it is confirmed that investments in human capital bring positive returns to the Brazilian public sector. The results achieved are robust in the sample composed of civil servants who have completed at least one additional training course, when applying the Propensity Score Matching.