The Public Sector People Managers’ Association (PPMA) is launching an Apprentice-style competition to identify and boost the next generation of people leaders in the public sector.

Rising Stars 2013 is open to anyone working in HR and is free for individuals in organisations which are PPMA members. The competition opens for entries on Monday 10 December 2012.

Rising Stars 2013, which is sponsored by Manpower, involves a series of tasks in which candidates undertake and write up an original piece of research, then attend the competition event in Warwick 11-12 February 2013 where they participate in a communications master class, present their work to a judging panel without the use of visual aids and endure a quick-fire Q&A session designed to assess their ability to think under pressure.

Attracting and nurturing the best talent at an early stage of their career remains one of the “biggest challenges” for public sector HR, says Leatham Green, the PPMA’s Policy Lead for Wellbeing and Job Creation and Assistant Director of HR for East Sussex County Council: “The entry level of talent needs to be better – once we have the best talent we need to be more proactive in nurturing and developing that talent and creating opportunities for development.  The PPMA is seeking to pool resources to make this happen.”

The competition will ask emerging HR talent to come up with and present innovative thinking on how to address the challenge presented by an ageing workforce and an under representation of young employees in the public sector.

Nick Heckscher, Sector Director for Government at Manpower, which is sponsoring the competition, said: “We are confident that up and coming HR professionals can deliver some great insights and ideas on this subject as it’s likely that they have the best view on some of the causes and issues. The other exciting aspect of this theme is that it’s not limited to the public sector. Talent mismatches, whether of education, experience, skills or geography are making it hard for organizations across the world to organise work effectively.”

Rising Stars 2013 is open to anyone working in HR but the PPMA wants particularly to target future HR leaders currently at an early stage of their career in the public sector. “We’re conscious that not all organisations can invest in junior members of staff, and this initiative will enable them to access high quality development,” says Green. “As a sector, we must ensure we have the capacity and capability coming through the profession. It’s not about age or job type, it’s about nurturing those with aspirations to become leader in the future.”

Rising Stars 2013 is designed to build the resilience and confidence of the public sector’s future HR leaders. The competition is open to anyone working in HR and is free for individuals who are themselves PPMA members or whose employer is an organisational member of the PPMA. For non-members there is an entry fee of £149.

Three finalists will be selected by the judging panel on 12 February. The final round of the competition takes place at the national PPMA Annual Seminar on 18-19 April in Bristol. There candidates will participate in a ‘head to head’ and present their reports to attending delegates, who will vote to determine the overall winner who will be given a non-voting seat on the PPMA Board for one year, plus their personal blog on the PPMA website.