Abstract

In the context of policy change in the EU, lifelong-learning has acquired a growing significance due to its
promise to foster both professional development and personal fulfillment and thus contribute to the enhancement
of social inclusion, active citizenship, competitiveness, and employability. The need for developing a smart and
sustainable economy puts greater emphasis on the efficient management of Human Resources in order to
produce quality services and improve governance, especially in public administration. Education and training
can play a pivotal role towards this objective, as the development of the public servants’ skills and competences
through an effective competent-based learning platform will contribute to the enhancement of the organization’s
operational and administrative capacity. Greece is a member-state in need of intensified policy transfer in general
and of further developing learning organizations in particular. Focusing on Greece’s State Scholarships
Foundation (IKY) as a case study encourages us to explore two distinct but closely related aspects: (a) the role of
the Foundation in policy transfer and the transnationalisation of policy and (b) the changes which the Foundation
itself is undergoing as a learning organization. The paper suggests that viewing the transformation of public
organizations into learning organizations as an instrument for policy reform may be a valuable way forward in
the attempt to modernize public administration in Greece’s reform-resistant context.

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