1.0 INTRODUCTION Training is very important personnel
function to which every organization must pay special attention. The
contribution of individual workers depends on what knowledge of the work they
have and the skills they possess to carry out the work. These contributions
will increase
and improve with new knowledge and skill obtainable in most cases
from training.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
At the end of this note, you should be able to:
·
identify what training is
·
state the training needs and objective of training
· device Training
Plans
·
conduct Training needs Surveys.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 Definitions and Scope G.A. Cole defines training
as any learning activity which is directed towards acquisition of specific
knowledge and skills for the purpose of an occupation or task. The focus of
training is the job or task.
Scope: Scope is the quantity and quality of training.
G.A. Cole gives a long list of what determines the quantity and quality of
training in organizations. They are:
- Degree of change in the external environment e.g.
Technological and environment changes.
- Degree of internal change-new processes, new markets.
- Availability of suitable skills within the existing work
force.
- Adaptability of existing work force
- The extent to which the organization supports the idea of
internal career development.
- The commitment of
senior Management to training as an essential part of economic success.
- The extent to which
management sees training as a motivating factor in work.
- Knowledge and skills of those responsible for carrying out
the training.
The quantity and
quality of training in an organization depend on its policy towards training.
In some organizations, especially in the Nigerian Public Sector, training is
adhoc, unplanned and haphazard.
Other organizations are careful about training and are
systematic about identifying training needs, then designing training activities
in a rational manner to meet the needs afterwards to evaluate the results. The knowledge
and skills that are or are not available in the public service as a result of
training or lack of it are a function of two phenomena. The first is pre-entry
training and the second is in-service training.
3.1.1 Training Objectives
The personnel manager formulates the following training
objectives in mind:
- To prepare the
employee both new and old to meet the present as well as the changing
requirements of the job and the organization.
- To prevent obsolesce
- To impact the new entrants the basic knowledge and skill
they need for an intelligent performance of a definite job.
- To prepare employees to function more effectively in their
present position by exposing them to the latest concepts, information and
techniques and developing the skills they will need in their particular fields.
- To build up a
second line of competent officers and prepare them to occupy more responsible
positions.
- To broaden the minds of senior managers by providing them
with opportunities of an interchange of
experiences within and outside with a view to correcting the narrowness of
outlook that arise from over-specialization.
- To ensure smooth and efficient working of a department.
- To ensure economical output of required quality
- To promote
individual and collective morale, a sense of responsibility co-operative
attitudes and good relationship.
3.1.2 Need for Training
Every
organization should provide training to all employees irrespective of their
qualification, skill, suitability for the job etc. Training is not something
that is done once to a new employee; it is used continuously in every well-run
establishment. Further, technological changes, automation, require up-dating
the skills and knowledge. As such an organization has to retrain the old
employees. Specifically, the need for
training arises due to the following reasons:
- To match the employees specifications with the job requirements
and organizational needs. An employee’s specification may not exactly suit
the requirements of the job and the organization irrespective of his past
experience, qualifications, skills, knowledge etc.
Thus management may find deviations between employees’
present specifications and the job requirements and organizational needs. Training
is needed to fill these gaps by developing and moulding the employee’s skill,
knowledge, attitude, behavior etc. tune to the time of job requirements and
organizational needs.
- Organizational
viability and the transformation process. The primary goal of most of the
organizations is their viability and efficiency. But the organizational
viability is continuously influenced by environmental pressures. If the
organization does not adapt itself to the changing factors in the environment,
it will loose its market share. If the organization desires to adopt these changes,
employees must be trained to impact specific skills and knowledge inorder to
enable them to contribute to the organization efficiency and to cope with the
changing environment.
In addition it
provides continuity to the organizational process and development, the
productivity of the organization can be improved by developing the efficiency
of transformation process which in turn depends on enhancement of existing level
of skills and knowledge of the employees.
The achievement of these objectives mostly depends on the effectiveness
of the human resources that the organization possesses. Employee effectiveness
can be secured by proper training.
- Technological Advances: Every organization, inorder
to survive and to be effective, should adopt the latest technology i.e. Mechanization,
computerization and automation. Technology alone does not guarantee success
unless it is supported by people possessing requisite skills. So, organization
should train the employees to enrich them in the areas of changing technical
skills and knowledge from time to time.
- Organizational complexity: With the emergence of increased
mechanization and automation, manufacturing of multiple products and by
products or dealing in services of diversified lines, extension of operation to
various regions of the country or in overseas countries, organization of most
companies has become complex. This leads to growth in the number and kinds of
employees and layers in the organizational hierarchy. This in turn creates the
problems of coordination and integration of activities at various levels.
This situation calls for training in the skills of
co-ordination, integration and adaptability to the requirements of growth,
diversification and expansion. Companies constantly search for opportunities to improve organizational
effectives. Training is responsible for much of the planned change and
effectiveness in an organization as it prepares the people to the change agents
and to implement the programmes of effectiveness.
- Change in the Job Assignment: Training is also
necessary when the existing employee is promoted to higher level in the organization
and when there is some new job or occupation due to transfer, advanced
disciplines, techniques or technology.
Training is also needed to:
- Increase
productivity
- Improve quality of the product/service
- Help a company to fulfil its future personnel needs
- Improve organizational climate - Improve health and
safely.
- Prevent obsolesce
- Effect personal growth
- Minimise the resistance to change.
3.2 Pre-Entry Training
Pre-entry training is the training an employee undergoes
before he or she joins a service of an organization. This is done to ensure
some appreciable level of pre-entry knowledge and skills to enable the new entrants
to acclimatize and fit-in in his or her present position.
3.2.1 The Liberal Arts School of Thought
The liberal school of thought assumes that “--- the best
administration are those who have had a general liberal education which makes
for flexibility of mind, imagination and breath of outlook. To a large extent, in
the initial years of the Nigerian Civil Service it was guided by this school of
thought. The requirement for entry into the administrative class of the
Nigerian Civil Service was mainly a liberal arts degree of not lower than a
second class. It was believed that this entry qualification was sufficient to
take one through the career wings to the topmost position – that of a head of
service without any other form of training.
3.2.2 The Science -Oriented School of Thought
In this school of thought, it is maintained that
administration is not all art but also science. This being the case, principles
can be deduced from its practice which can be taught and learnt. This school
believes that a student with a liberal arts degree can be given specialist
training in the technicalities of administration. Such training combined with
internship opportunities can qualify
young people for a career in administration. This school of thought argues that
it is possible to provide vocational training in administration – subjects
covered in such a training being determined by what an administrator actually
does.
Such courses include Administrative Law, Budgetary Theory
and Practice, Personnel Administration, Purchasing and Handling of Supplies
etc. The aim of this type of training is to produce generalist. But the
shortcoming of this type of training is that the generalists it produces, fits
only into government administrative work and nothing else.
3.2.3 Professionals with Administrative Training
This is the
third school of thought whose aim is to turn the expert in one field or the
other into an administrator inorder to broaden their knowledge and scope of
work. The bulk of non-clerical public jobs necessarily calls for technical
knowledge in some field or the other. By character, experts view issues from a
narrowness of their expertise. Given some administrative training, the
narrowness is minimized.
In Nigeria in recent times, the second and third school of
thought are now the guide posts for administrative training. Apart from the
limited number of people who opt to read Public Administration as a first degree
course, quite a number come from the Social Sciences. But those in the core and
Medical sciences with a diploma in Administration are likely to function more
effectively as a Permanent Secretary.
3.3 In-Service Training
In-service
training starts from the application of the knowledge which an employee brings
into the service on the job to which he is assigned. It continues and includes
making older employees more efficient in the performance of their present
duties and even to equip them to qualify for the advancement in one or more
direction.
Here you shall be availed of the forms and methods of
in-service training:
a) Group Training:
Most of the pre-entry trainings discussed above are done in
groups. However within the organization, conferences and seminars are held,
field trips are undertaken. These are all training sessions. This type of
training could be very profitable for both the subordinate and the supervisor. Initial
induction courses where large numbers of people are involved take this format.
(b) On –The – Job Instruction:
This is the
commonest form of training especially for the new entrants. The superior goes
round to the work desk or bench and gives instruction on how a particular work
is done.
(c) Manuals and Bulletins: These are essential study
materials that are given out in the work place. Handbooks, procedure manuals or
periodic bulletins, made attractive and readable are a great method of training
in an organization. In Nigeria, the work of administration – the handling of
personnel manuals, the most important being the civil service rules Handbook.
No administrator, however long he has been in service that has a table that
lacks these documents. They are the administrator’s companion.
(d) Correspondence
Courses:
This is an equivalent of distance learning.
(e) Use of Audio-Visual Aids:
These includes such media as still pictures, models,
specimens posters, maps, charts, film strips, and motion pictures. In Nigeria,
any training undertaken whilst an employee is in-service, whether done in an
institution outside the organization is regarded as an in –service training.
This note has been able to define what training is. The
importance and types of training, the pre-entry training, induction and
placement. Such training is the source of the reservoir of knowledge and skills
available in an organization before in-service training comes in to augment it
and tend it to greater efficiency and to a preparation for higher duties.
5.0 SUMMARY
This note has dealt with the meaning of
training, as well as in-service training. It also gives the scope of training. <<<Previous Note View Course Content Next Note>>>
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