TRAINING

It is a systematic organized process aimed at enhancing knowledge and skills for a specific purpose. It
revolves around transferring technological knowhow to employees to enable them perform tasks
efficiently. It is done for the following reason;

Enhance knowledge and skills among workers, bring about change in attitude of workers towards
colleagues, supervisors and managers, improve the overall performance of the organization, enable
workers operate equipment and embrace technology in their work and to prepare workers for higher
positions.

Types of training

Job training

This is training related to the job one is required to undertake. Under job training we have different
kinds of training. They are-

Technical training

This is useful to new recruits as it introduces them to the technical aspects of their work. Different tasks
require different levels of technology. It includes teaching one how to use equipment such as computers
or ICT in general. It responds to demand emanating from the environment that the institution operates..
for instance there may be need to embrace new models of equipment , software etc.

Quality training

This revolves around ensuring that the organization always offers quality goods and services to the
public. It aims at enabling employees to prevent, detect and do away with practices that compromise
quality

Skills training

This deals with the specific skills required to do a task. That is, those things that one needs to know to be
able to perform his job. E.g what does a teacher, nurse, doctor etc need to know to be able to offer
services efficiently?

Soft skills

This has to do with personality and social skills especially how one relates with others, etiquette. It also
focuses on how to relate with people in an amicable and respectable manner, communication skills,
engaging in and sustaining a conversation. It has been noted that an individual not only needs job
specific skills but also soft skill to survive in a work environment.

Refresher training
This is meant for those who have been in service for long. It is meant to make workers aware of the
latest methods of performing their jobs. Here we have professional training. It is needed to be up to
date with what is happening in your field/profession. E.g someone in ICT may need to know the newer
versions of software and embrace them.

Methods of training

There two main methods of training namely on-job and off-job training.

On-job training is where the actual training takes place at work. The worker is usually under the
supervision of his boss. It is also called learning by doing. It works best while trying to impart knowledge
and skills that are not complex and can be learnt in the shortest time possible. Some on job training
methods are as follows;

Coaching-the superior shows the trainee what to do and how to do it

Understudy- here training works closely with his superior where he works as his assistant. This trains
him to be in leadership position in future.

Job rotation-this is mainly to broaden the background of the trainee on what goes on within the
organization. Here, the trainee is from time to time assigned different tasks in different departments, it
is aimed having an all round worker who can fit in almost all areas of the organization. It is used to
ensure there will always be someone to fill a vacant position when it arises due to death, sickness or
retirement.

Off job training

This simply means training conducted away from the organization. Here we have special lectures. This is
similar to class training where students go to class to be taught. Members of an organization are sent
somewhere to attend these lectures or they are sponsored to take certain short causes. Eg. Government
administrators sent to Kenya school of administration to get basics on how to handle the public.

Conference training- people attend conferences and workshops where they learn about different
subject related to their work.

Training needs analysis

Having briefly looked at what training is, its importance and the various methods of conducting training,
we now look at how one can go about training. Where do we start? And where do we end? The answers
to these questions will take us through the process. Training needs assessment/analysis refers to a
process of determining performance requirements, knowledge, skills and competencies required for an
organization to fulfill its mandate. In other words, it is a process that aims at finding out whether the
workforce or personnel have what it takes to meet the objectives of their organizations or institutions. A
good analysis pays attention to employee skill proficiency (does the employee have the critical necessary
skills required for the job), how often employees use their skills and the level of skill that an employee
has(basic, elementary or high).

Training needs analysis can be done from three main levels namely the organizational level,
occupational level and individual level.

Needs analysis at the organizational level

This entails analyzing the organization in terms of what it stands for, mission vision and goals. This will
give a clear indication of the necessary skills needed for the organization to accomplish its goal. Such an
assessment sheds light on where or which areas require training, whether the training is specific to
certain sectors or departments and whether training will help solve the problem of performance in the
organization.

Needs analysis at the operational level

This is also known as the occupational level or job level. This kind of analysis is task specific where it
aims at finding out whether an individual has acquired the necessary skills for the task at hand. It
involves breaking down a task to see what activities are involved then try to see if the individual has all it
takes to undertake those activities. E.g teaching look at what it takes to teach right from preparation for
class, delivery and assessment then match it with the level of skill the teacher has if it can enable him to
do his work. Such an analysis is guide by questions like, how is the job performed? What are the
performance standards for job? What are the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to complete the job
successfully? The assessor needs to look at the job specification and description while doing his analysis.
These documents have detailed information about the job as they contain details about what the job
holder should do and the requirements needed for the job.

Needs analysis at the individual level

Here, the analyst looks at how the individual delivers or discharges his duties. This is done against the
expected outcome. In other words, check whether work is done or is yielding results as expected. If the
worker is not giving positive results then find out why to be able to identify where there is a gap in
knowledge and skills and recommend for training in those areas of weakness. At his level of analysis, the
analyst needs to focus on the following questions. What is the expected outcome? Do employees have
what it takes to do their job? Is there a gap in the expected and actual performance? What prevents
employees from performing? What kind of training is required to fix the performance issue?

From these three levels of analysis, an analyst should be able to know the desired outcome of a
particular institution, identify specific areas that require training and determine the skills needed, and
recommend training. The organization will then schedule training decide on who will do it? when? How?

After training employees are given time to put their new skills to work as their performance is
monitored from time. Should the management not be satisfied with the results, they will go back to
square one. That is to say that training is a continuous process carried out from time to time to enable
organizations to keep up to date with skills, knowledge and attitude required to achieve their objectives.