University of Valencia logo Logo Permanent Training and Educational Innovation Service (SFPIE) Logo del portal

The specific regulations approved by the SFPIE belong to its inner workings and are mandatory for the teaching staff of the courses, staff of the University of Valencia and participants in the training actions.

Revised and approved version in the Coordination Council of the SFPIE in 31 July 2012. Available in

The Staff Development and Educational Innovation Service (SFPIE) is the structure of the Manuel Sanchis Guarner Training and Quality Centre that coordinates the initiatives the training of the staff of the UV and the initiatives of educational innovation. Furthermore, it serves as a means of connection between the University of Valencia and the educational applications at a non-university level in respect of the perfection of the teaching staff and the corresponding educational research.

In December 2010, the Staff Development Service of the UV, existing since 1986, joined administratively with the Educational Innovation Unit, created in 2009. Later, in Governing Council of 20 December 2011, the change of the name of the service to Staff Development and Educational Innovation Service (SFPIE) was approved.

By Staff Development we refer to the training aimed specifically to the staff of the University of Valencia, that tries to respond to the training extension, specialization and perfection needs of the members of the Administration and Services Staff, and the Teaching and Researching Staff of the UV, as well as of teaching staff of non-university levels. Together with the regular offer of specific training actions referred to the training areas necessary for each group, from the SFPIE training actions organized by other applications of the UV or by bodies with which there exist collaboration agreements are also authorised.

Educational Innovation refers to the innovative and teaching improvement initiatives developed by the teaching staff that carries out their teaching tasks in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies of the UV, a great part of which are conveyed by means of aids called by the Vice-Principal for Culture and Equality.

1. The Training programmes managed from the SFPIE

1.1. Staff Development

This programme belongs to the training coming from the institutional aids of the Valencian Institute of Public Administration (IVAP) that configures the programme usually referred as “On-going Training”, (also called “Training for Employment”), announced generally at the beginning of the year. These actions, aimed to both the PAS as PDI, are configured within an Annual Training Plan that is developed from the corresponding sections of the SFPIE, and that is published in the DOCV. The authorisation regulation of these actions, both for the PAS and the PDI, is the general regulation of the IVAP, and can be consulted here. Regarding the participation criteria in the offer of On-going Training, the aforementioned regulation of the IVAP by which the people participating according to these criteria is presented below:

  • To those courses that have specific requirements, it will be confirmed that, effectively, people interested in taking them meet said requirements.
  • Preference will be given to the requests of those applicants that have not taken a course of similar characteristics in the last three years, except in those courses that belong to a study plan (Certificate of Administrative Competences, groups C1 and C2).
  • Preference will be given, as well, to those who have not taken training courses in the last three years.
  • The actual staff will be balanced in percentage terms with the participation of men and women in the attendance to the training courses, according to what is established in the article 44 of the Law of the Generalitat Valenciana 9/2003, in 2 April, for the equality of women and men.
  • In case of draw between applicants when applying the criteria above, it will be necessary to adjust to the strict order of entry of the (day/hour).

Furthermore, there exist some specific conditions that are applied to the selection of applicants, although for the moment (by the technical constraint of the computer management platform of the courses) this application makes necessary an express request of the people affected; these situations are considered below:

  • Those who have joined the active service coming from the maternity or paternity leave, or have re-entered from a leave based on legal guardianship and care of depended adults or people with disabilities, according to the Organic Law 3/2007, of 22 March, for the effective equality of women and men.
  •  In the selection will have to be taken in account, on one hand, the reserve of the 3% of places for people with disabilities, established in the article 23 of the Law 11/2003, in 10 April, of the Generalitat Valenciana, on the Statute of People with Disabilities and, on the other, the reserve of 40% of the places expected in the article 60 of the Organic Law 3/2007, in 22 March, for the effective equality of women and men, between public employees, that meet the requirements.

1.2. Specific training

On the other hand, the SFPIE has its own offer of the University, proposed from the technical section of the own SFPIE, that answers to the training strategic need detected for each one of the groups that make up the UV: the PAS, the PDI and the non-university teaching staff, in as much as is equally part of the educative fabric that surrounds the UV. This specific training is organized in different sub-programmes:

1.2.1. Compact qualifications

From the 2010-2011 academic year, the SFPIE has set in motion the offer of compact degrees for the PAS and the PDI: the Diploma of University Management (DGU) and the Diploma in Research, Management and University Teaching (DIGEU). In this section we confirm the specific training of these diplomas:

  • Duration of the qualifications: Both the DGU and the DIGEU have a duration of 150 contact hours.
  • Schedule: The schedules of the diplomas are designed each year from the SFPIE according to the availability of the teaching staff involved in its teaching, as well as the availability of the classrooms, etc.
  • Attendance count: a percentage of 85% is needed to complete the Diploma, it is achieved by counting the attendance to the activities that make up the different modules of the Diploma.
  • In order get each individual activity validated, and be considered in the total attendance calculations, according to the general regulations of the SFPIE, they will have to attend a minimum of hours or sessions until they get to an 85% of each training action. That is, if one the subjects that configures a module does not register an attendance of 85%.
  • Assessment: Aside from the requisites of minimum attendance, in order to pass the compulsory modules it is necessary to pass the corresponding exam of this module (except the module on “The University of Valencia”).
  • Recognition of the diplomas: The Diploma has to be carried out along the schedule established in the moment of the registration and published in the website. When the marked period ends, if 85% of the attendance is not completed or the corresponding tests of each module is not passed, there will exist the possibility of completing it during two more years, adding all of this to the following editions of the Diplomas by express request to the SFPIE. The Diploma will be certified in the year that is completed. If the Diploma is not completed within the offered possibilities or the student decides to give up (by filling a express withdrawal form that can be downloaded here), activities carried out as individual training activities of the SFPIE can be recognised, although the usual penalisation criteria for long-term training actions will be applied (cf. §2.3).

Aside from the requisites of minimum attendance, in order to pass the compulsory modules it is necessary to pass the corresponding exam of this module (except the module on “The University of Valencia”).

Validations: Both in the case of the DIGEU as in the DGU everyone can consider the validation of activities similar in content and programme with the ones included within the Diploma and carried out between the ordinary offer of the SFPIE from 2011, year in which the teaching of the Diplomas started (conferences, experience exchange meetings, work groups, etc. are not considered as “ordinary offer”). In these cases, an express request must be issued to the Coordination Council of the SFPIE, indicating which the contents that they want to validate are and the courses; the Council will value each case and inform to the person requesting it. This request will be issued as a file attached to an e-mail to sfp@uv.es.

It is understood that the partial validation of a module means a command of the validated contents, therefore partial validation of compulsory contents will not entail the exemption of the carrying out of the exam. This exemption will only be possible in the event of the full validation of a module.

In the case of the DIGEU, when the teaching staff has carried out the University Teaching Initiation Course (CIDU) offered by this Service from the 2003/2004 academic year, everyone can request a validation that, from the 2012/2013 academic year will be of 2 credits of the Module 3 (“University Teaching”) and 3 credits of the Module 7 (“Teaching and Research in Higher Education”). In order to make effective this validation an express request must be issued to the Coordination Council of the SFPIE. This request will be issued as a file attached to an e-mail to sfp@uv.es.

1.2.2. Strategic training

Is the type of training planned every four months from the technical section of the Staff Development Unit of the SFPIE, according to factors such as budgetary availability, needs detected in the staff, priorities established in the annual operative plans, etc.

1.2.3. Language training

Annually, the SPFIE organises an aid scheme for language learning that includes the different sub-programmes aimed to the staff of the UV; the call of each year can be consulted in the corresponding paragraph of the website, in the following link.

1.2.4. On-demand training

Most of the offer is directly proposed from the Staff Development Unit, but there also exist the possibility of On-Demand Training: any group of professionals of the UV can suggest us a training action to be developed from the SFPIE. This request is subjected to the regulations that can be consulted here.

1.2.5. Authorisation of training actions

We understand by “Authorisation” the process through which Staff Development actions organized from other services or departments of the UV, or also from bodies external to the UV that have an specific agreement are evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively. This evaluation process needs to guarantee the quality of the training actions. The Staff Development and Educational Innovation Service can authorise training actions organised by bodies, services and departments, as well as other bodies, whenever the actions are positively evaluated and are aimed to the staff of our competence. The regulation governing these processes is available here.

1.2.6. Aids to the Specialised training of the PAS

This call expects to attend the single cases that demand specialised training actions, in a field external to the ordinary training offer of the Staff Development and Educational Innovation Service (SFPIE).

The objective of these training actions is the specialisation in administrative, technical and laboratory tasks that are essential to the positions or that are deemed necessary for the better exercise of the tasks assigned to the positions of the Administration Staff (such as the areas of libraries, veterinary sciences, botany, heritage conservation, sports, audio-visual, publications, computer sciences, linguistics, etc.), through the grant for the attendance to the courses organised by public bodies, preferably, and well-known private bodies whose objective is the theoretical and practical update of subjects directly related to the work field to which the position of the applicant belongs.

The modules, courses, subjects, topics, etc., that lead to the obtaining of official university degrees and with validity for all the national territory, as well as the own degrees of the public universities or language courses, will not be subject to grants. Annual calls can be consulted here.

2. Functioning and participation rules in the studies available of the Staff Development and Educational Innovation Services

2.1. Registration process

The studies available published in the website, normally specifies the addressees of each of these, indicating if it is an action open to all the staff or to a specific collective (PAS, PAS and PDI, PDI, PDI, PDI with academic position, non-university staff, etc.)

Participation is made generally through registration in the computer platform of registration, except some cases of Training on Demand, where participants are selected directly by the petitioners of the course or is made by a process through a form.

When a member of the staff of the UV makes a participation form, he receives a first email (Application form) which confirms the registration of his/her form, but not the effective registration; this is done over a subsequent process: when the registration period ends an appropriate scale is applied from the computer platform, applying the specific selection criteria that needs each training action; if the person is selected, because he/she meets the needed requirements, he/she will be send from the computer platform a second email, which confirms this selection (Admission); when the interested person answers to this email confirming attendance in the computer platform, is when he/she can consider that the registration has been done. If the person concerned does not confirm this participation, a vacancy is created in the training action; the occupation of these ones is made according to the order assigned in the waiting list. For this purpose, the vacancies shall be communicated to the interested people for them to confirm the sooner the better their attendance. It should be take into account that there are always people in the waiting list, so confirmations of attendance not accomplished or cancelled will be penalized.

The development of the course sessions and the transmission of knowledge are under the responsibility of teaching staff, as well as the appropriate attendance control. If the training actions require a final assessment test, the teaching staff will inform to the participants about the structure and contents at the beginning of the training action. The participants of the courses will receive a certificate of participation; at least if they have attended the 85% of the hours, if it is the case if they pass the final test established by the teaching staff. The attendance below to the percentage indicated above excludes the issuance of any certificate.

2.2. Attendance and accreditation control process

Most of the activities managed by the SFPIE are passed without any specific test, for what it is necessary to guarantee a minimum of participation. For the control of attendance are taken three different measures:

  • It is responsibility of each participant person in a training action to sign all the course sessions.
  • It is necessary to attend the 85% of the total hours of the training actions.
  • The excused absences during the development of the training activities will be validated for not penalizing the participant in future calls, but will not add hours for the calculation of the 85% attendance of the activity.

The certificates of the activities organised by the Staff Development and Educational Innovation Services of the University of Valencia, are managed by the administration and services staff of the Manuel Sanchis Guarner Centre. May be requested in person, by internal an ordinary mail, and through email to the address sfp@uv.es.

2.3. Penalizations for no attendance and/or no passing the assessment tests

Except some cases of Training on Demand where some training actions are planned directly for a specific collective that needs it for their job, the participation in the offer of the Staff Development and Educational Innovation Services is always voluntary. The mechanisms of the selection of participants responds to the regulations usually established from the IVAP, and it is very frequent that training actions remain in a waiting list. This means that we should be responsible in the use that each participant makes of their right of training, and remember when attendance to a course is confirmed is likely that someone missed out on a place. For this reason, when the computer platform of courses management registers that a confirmed action is not performed immediately activates a penalization to the person concerned, so that:

a) For the training actions of the plans of Continuous Training, Training on Demand, or Strategic Training for both PAS and PDI, when a person doesn’t participate without renouncing to the training action within 48 hours to the start of the course, will be penalized so in later course calls that he/she registers will be the last of the waiting list.

b) For long-term programmes as the English programme in the workplace, giving up the programme without notifying in advance means a penalization of three years without registration option.

c) For compact qualifications, as the DGU and the DIGEU, also it will be applied a penalization of three years, although the person could introduce in his/her training record the training actions that he/she has finished properly.

2.4. Computer management and assessment of training actions

 The assessment of training is twofold:

a) The person who receives the training (is not enough a certificate of attendance, especially if this attendance is controlled only with a signature sheet). Increasingly, institutions are introducing assessment tests in the activities of Permanent Training, and this is also the recommendation made by the Diagnostic Document of PAS made by the UV in 2012; therefore, we intend, to introduce gradually assessment tests that go beyond of simple attendance.

b) The service that organizes it (including teaching staff). All training actions of the Staff Development and Educational Innovation Services are included in the Programmes mentioned in §1, and for each one are registered a series of effectiveness indicators reflected in the operational plans of each Strategic Plan. In addition each activity is managed in the learning environment of Virtual Classroom, where are activated the assessment questionnaires that allow us to value the appropriateness and effectiveness of our offer. For consistency with other actions of the UV, we also share the publication of training materials of each course, some of which are available in the website Open Course Ware de la UV.

2.5. Training in the workplace for PAS: Permissions

According to successive agreements of Continuous Training in Public Administrations, the people responsible of management centres have to facilitate the attendance of workers to the courses of Continuous Training, in accordance with the current legislation –article 66 of Law 10/2010, 9 July, of Planning and Management of the Valencian Public Function (letter g); article 40 of the Decree 175/2006, 24 November, of the Council, for which are regulated the work conditions of the staff to the service of the Council administration; and article 13.2 of the Decree 68/2012, 4 May, of the Council, for which are modified the mentioned Decree 175/2006- as the successive Agreements of Continuous Training of the Public Administrations.

However, it is necessary to regulate the communication mechanisms that inform the people responsible of participation of workers in training actions, especially in long-term training actions, such as the English programmes in the workplace or the Diplomas. For this reason, the SFPIE notes the necessity that all the staff involved in training actions notify to their superiors their admission and attendance, while we remember you what is established in the call of the Generalitat Valenciana (Resolution of 10 April, 2012, the General Directorate of Human Resources, for which are convened the courses of the Training Plan for Services Staff of the Generalitat, in 2012):

“The attendance hours of the staff to the courses for which they are selected will be considered working hours, when the actions mentioned above coincide with the working hours of the student. The attendance will be subject to cover the needs of the service when these will be held during all the working hours or in part of these, and will not be recovered. The responsible of the management centres shall facilitate the attendance. The denial of permission by hierarchical superiors should be justified and notify with a written document."