Focus Area Information

Program and Service Delivery

The Ontario Public Service (OPS) is committed to service excellence in the delivery of all of its programs. The OPS strives to ensure the needs of citizens are met in a cost-effective and efficient manner. In fact, Ontario is recognized both nationally and internationally for innovation in program and service delivery. With a vast range of program and service offerings across the province, the OPS continuously improves on the delivery of our programs and services for all Ontarians.

As a program and service delivery intern, you will have the opportunity to be part of a team focused on delivering better programs and quality services. Your work may include reviewing programs, researching service delivery models, analyzing current service delivery processes and recommending improvements, assisting in consulting program stakeholders on program improvements and supporting plans to ensure quality services and ensure customers are satisfied.

Assignments will be located in regional and operational offices and will be especially appealing to those interested in applying a well-rounded approach to the development and implementation of program and service delivery initiatives in the OPS. Please note that assignments are not offered within the GTA.

Skills and Abilities

  • Analytical skills: Analyzing information to find trends and relevant findings, drawing conclusions, making recommendations and communicating results. Analyses may be qualitative or quantitative
  • Communicating effectively: Effective oral and written presentation of information in a clear, concise and accurate manner. The writer uses techniques like active listening, attention to body language, correct spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure to write content that is clear, concise and captures well thought out ideas
  • Customer service skills: Identifying and serving an organization's customers who may include the public, colleagues, partners, and peers. Efforts are focused on discovering and meeting the needs of the customer and/or client
  • Business-planning skills: Identifying key business objectives and goals for the organization, considering the variety of factors that impact the organization and establishing goals that account for those factors
  • Evaluation skills: Determining the effectiveness of a service or program based on existing practices, systems, and/or policies
  • Flexibility: Able to adapt to and work effectively within a variety of situations and with various individuals or groups to achieve results. Flexibility involves understanding and appreciating different and opposing perspectives on an issue, adapting an approach as situations change, and accepting changes within the organization or in one's own job. It also means adapting to new, different or changing situations, requirements and priorities
  • Problem-solving skills: Understanding a situation by recognizing it, breaking it apart into smaller pieces, or tracing the implications step-by-step. It includes the ability to identify patterns or connections between situations that are not obviously related, and to identify key or underlying issues in complex situations
  • Project management skills: Applying specific techniques to plan, control, manage, schedule and complete tasks in order to accomplish a defined set of desired results
  • Process improvement: Identify and implement changes in work processes that will produce measurable enhancements
  • Relationship management: Fostering good connections through clients with respect, ethics and trust in order to achieve common interests
  • Research skills: Gathering information by digging or pressing for exact information and implies going beyond the questions that are routine or required. Research involves seeking information to resolve discrepancies by asking a series of questions or by conducting an environmental scan for potential opportunities or miscellaneous information that may be of future use
  • Teamwork skills: Working co-operatively and collaboratively, as opposed to competitively, within a team or workgroups, including contributing fully and actively to team activities, projects and client initiatives to achieve group and organizational goals.

What to Expect

As a program and service delivery intern, your work could include:

  • Participating in development of standards, processes, methods, benchmark techniques and performance measures to ensure the efficient delivery of programs and services to stakeholders
  • Assisting in process, assess risk and evaluate programs to develop improvement options for program improvements
  • Reviewing the quality of publicly-available program information to find how easily the public can get it and recommend improvements
  • Working in a team-based environment on project-planning and implementation activities related to research, assessing needs and delivering service
  • Conducting research and analysis to develop recommendations in papers/reports to make improvements and become more efficient
  • Consulting stakeholders such as program managers, ministry staff and/or other jurisdictions, to discuss how program and service functions, business practices and processes related to program and service delivery can be improved while maintaining ongoing business relationships
  • Analyzing and developing performance and quality service standards by researching how well workflows, effectiveness of programs and services meet operational goals and service standards
  • Assessing the impact of new or revised operational policies, systems, and procedures on the delivery of programs and services based on customer satisfaction surveys and process reviews
  • Preparing briefing materials, planning documents and reports to support ongoing programs and services.

Looking Ahead

This is just the beginning of your career in the OPS. An internship in program and service delivery is an opportunity for you to learn and develop and will prepare you for a wide range of career opportunities in the OPS.