The Public Leadership Credential (PLC) at Harvard Kennedy School

Why I enrolled the PLC?

I started my Public Leadership Credential (PLC) at Harvard Kennedy School when I embarked on my international experience. I was the COVID-19 Vaccine Preparedness consultant at the WHO Representative Office in Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and Singapore. I must enhance my critical thinking and develop strategic decisions to support the countries. I transitioned from working in low-middle-income countries (LMIC) to Middle-Income countries (MIC) settings. The modality to support the countries has also shifted based on the maturity of the countries’ health systems. The technical assistance provided was more on strategic direction monitoring and evaluation. Thus, after weighing its cost and benefit, I enrolled in the PLC program for personal self-development and to enhance my career path. I was among the 10% cohort of PLC learners worldwide.

Why Public Leadership Needs More Than Just Experience?

The first course I took was the Evidence for Decision course, one of the three focus areas. The three focus areas of PLC are skills needed for every public leader to be effective. Learners can take one or two courses at once in their focus area of interest. The PLC comprises six six-week courses:

1. Evidence for Decisions: this course enables me to acquire the skills necessary to demystify data and learn to leverage effective decision-making to change the world. It has two courses:
   • Course A: From Descriptions to Decision, and
   • Course B: Causes and Consequences.
2. Leadership and Ethics : it is ethical leadership course, in which individuals can acquire the skills necessary to begin the practice of moral leadership to instill change that has lasting impact on your community. It has two courses:
   • Course A: Moral Leadership in Personal Practice, and
   • Course B: Moral Leadership in Organizations and Society.
3. Policy Design and Delivery: this course enable students to acquire the knowledge to create policies to effect change in their communities. It has two courses
   • course A: A Systematic Approach and
   • course B: Innovation and Scaling.

Those courses are delivered entirely online and taught by Harvard’s renowned faculty. Each course is presented in an active and engaged learning environment. To note, this PLC is ideal for the ideal learner who is creative, dedicated, and driven by a desire to serve and has at least five years of work experience and a bachelor’s degree,

After completing six courses, the learner can continue taking the capstone to earn credentials as shown below:

My PLC experience

After completing my Evidence for Decisions courses A and B, I continued with the leadership and ethics course. The last focus area I took was policy design and delivery. Since working, I decided to take one course at a time. Thus, I completed all my courses within 2 years. The timeline of my PLC courses as follow:

No	Course Name	Course Date
1.	Evidence for Decision : From Descriptions to Decision	31 August – 12 October 2021
2.	Evidence for Decision : Causes and Consequences	2 November – 14 December 2021
3.	Leadership and Ethics : Moral Leadership in Personal Practice	30 August – 11 October 2022
4.	Leadership and Ethics: Moral Leadership in Organizations and Society.	1 November – 13 December 2022
5.	Policy Design and Delivery: A Systematic Approach*	24 January – 7 March 2023
6.	Policy Design and Delivery: Innovation and Scaling	28 March – 8 May 2023
7.	Capstone	30 May – 9 June 2023

Within each of the six-week courses, as a learner, I must complete the learning modules, case studies, and structured group activities (consisting of 3 or 6 learners in a group) to help me develop critical thinking skills to improve the public good and become a more effective public leader. Each week, I must submit my individual and group assignments.

My pain and gain during PLC

Completing the individual assignment while working was quite a struggle at the beginning. I needed to complete the self-paced module before being able to finish my individual assignment and come prepared for each group discussion. Finishing them required dedication, discipline, and self-investment during my weekend. I started working on the module by the end of Friday’s working day, although the new course week officially begins on Tuesday at 9 AM Eastern Time zone (ET). I should spend 10-12 hours on each module. I also had to spare one hour dedicated to the group discussion on Saturdays or Sundays. This was the trade-off between work and leisure I chose for my better future. Not to mention the time difference I had for taking the PLC. Within almost two years, I traveled a lot. Thus, I accessed PLC from different parts of the world as I moved my jobs and had personal and duty travels. As mentioned, I started when I was in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia. Then, I traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, Geneva, Switzerland; New York, USA; and Mecca, Saudi Arabia. I did my capstone in KL. It was so memorable to have a beginning and an end in the same place. I celebrated my capstone on 9 June 20203.

My self-investment has paid off. In the last two years, I had more confidence in writing English. I enhanced my critical thinking skills and was able to apply other skills taught in PLC. My assignment showed it, particularly in the last topic, Policy Design and Delivery. I scored high in these courses and even passed with distinction for course A. There are three components of the individual assignment. I scored 14 out of 15. I shared my policy recommendation with Ms. Hastha Meyta, my former colleague at the Immunization Directorate, Ministry of Health Indonesia.

Below is the grade of my final policy recommendation assignment:

I took the last two courses when I had my career break. It gave me more time to focus on taking the PLC. They were the courses I needed to work extra to gather more evidence and synthesize them into the individual assignment. It kept my busy life during my break.

Dynamic Group Activities

I was lucky enough to have a dynamic group since the beginning of the course. My group members came from across the world, from Colombia, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey, the UK, and the USA. In the first week, the group members set up the group norms. I always had a productive group discussion by sharing experiences, exchanging ideas, expressing concerns, and validating the understanding of each module. Everyone respected each other, always came up prepared for the discussion, and ended the activity with an agreement for the group assignment. This group activity was one of the practical learning methods. All the group members collectively contributed to the group assignment’s final version. By the end of the week, I submitted the group discussion alternately with other group members.

The Capstone Celebration

After completing all six courses, I took my capstone on 30 May – 9 June 2023, demonstrating my learning across all courses, including synthesizing frameworks and tools and reviewing key learning assignments completed in the courses. The result was announced within 6-8 weeks after the final submission. Finally, I got my credential on 28 August 2023.

The benefit of PLC

Learning the benefits of PLC was the critical point of my decision-making in enrolling in PLC. Some of them are below:

• Path to a Public Leadership Credential, which gives learners a better understanding of the nexus of policy, ethics, and leadership, equipping them to become effective public changemakers. The Public Leadership Credential and will be earned after completing six courses and the capstone.
• Become a member of the Professional and Lifelong Learning alumni community at HKS. Importantly, most PLCs participants greatly expand their professional network, making lifelong friendships among their fellow learners.
• Many report that adding a Harvard PLC to their CV helps their resume garner more respect and attention.
• A significant percentage report seeing a bump in their salary after completing their program–often very soon afterward–and reaching a higher position either in their organization or in a new one.

Lifelong friendships from online to offline reunion

Lastly, the benefit of PLC is that it will create lifelong friendships among fellow learners. I met Ms. Linda Ismail, one of my former group members from Singapore. We met in Luxemburg before I took my capstone. She relocated to Europe while I worked in Europe, too.

I kept recommending my friend and colleague to enroll in PLC. One of them was Mr. Jun Orbina, my former coworker at the Immunization, Vaccine and Biological (IVB) Department, WHO Headquarters. I recommend completing all six courses and taking the capstone to earn the credential. It’s the complete skill set to become an effective public leader.

The beginning of my career inspiration

While taking PLC, I gained more insights to navigate my future career direction. It was a transformation and personal growth. I kept applying the knowledge and skills I gained during PLC to my daily routine, personally and professionally. I was inspired to level up my career, such as having a leadership position in the next job with broader responsibilities and producing more strategic decisions.

For more information, please visit : https://www.hks.harvard.edu/educational-programs/public-leadership-credential