59 applications submitted for the second edition of “Upskilling for GOVERNANCE” closed on 14 May 2026 confirming the strong interest already recorded during the first edition of the initiative.

The result reflects a growing awareness among Apulian municipalities: digital transformation in local public administration is not built by installing platforms or updating procedures alone. It is built by investing in the people who manage services, processes and relations with citizens every day.

For local administrations, often called to deal with increasingly complex procedures and limited resources, structured professional development is becoming a key condition for making public services simpler, more digital and more effective. 

The response offered by the project is practical: a free 300-hour advanced training course combining online learning, seminars and in-person activities on public administration digitalisation, administrative simplification and EU funds management. 

The course offers 300 hours of free advanced training combining online learning, seminars and in-person sessions. The programme covers PA digitalisation, administrative simplification, and European funds management. Around 60% of the training content is delivered through transversal e-learning modules, accessible asynchronously, while the remaining 40% is tailored to the operational needs of local contexts.

A distinctive feature of the course is its peer-learning approach. Participants from different municipalities have the opportunity to work side by side, exchange experiences and turn practices already tested in some local administrations into shared knowledge for the wider community of public officers.

Promoted by the Apulia Region – Digital Growth Section together with ANCI Puglia, the University of Bari “Aldo Moro” and CINI (the National Interuniversity Consortium for Informatics), and developed within the Interreg GOVERNANCE strategic project, this edition continues a path that started with the first cohort and now grows further. 

The GOVERNANCE project brings together Apulia Region, Molise Region, SASPAC in Albania and the Ministries of Finance and of European Affairs in Montenegro to help make public administration simpler, more digital and closer to citizens across the South Adriatic area.