The Doom of Employees’ Training in Public Service – A Case Study of Ministry of Education in Kenya

Abstract

Employee training, whether in private or public sector is a mandatory exercise if the employees have to deliver what is expected of them. Many times organizations have failed to achieve their objectives simply because the employees lack the motivation, skills or the new technical knowledge that is required for one to be effective in the current job environments. To assess the success and failures of employee training in the public service in Kenya, the Ministry of Education was sampled out for study. Questionnaires were used to gather data from 364 employees out of the 5000 employees of the Ministry. Averages, ratios, standard deviation and analysis of variances (ANOVA) were some of the tool used to analyze the data. Implementation of various HRD practices across job groups, experience levels and departments was studied and revealed glaring gaps between what was proposed in training manuals and what was actually happening. It was clear that departments, job positions and experience played an undue advantage or disadvantage to some employees' opportunities for training. The study also revealed that some HRD practices were never taken seriously while others were unnecessarily over emphasized. The study found out that TNA recommendations are rarely implemented and programs evaluation is done for accounting purposes and prove of activity not necessarily to improve training. The study suggests;  That there should be constant evaluation of training programs  There should be more officers with HRD background  There should be centralized training  Performance appraisal should be taken more seriously  All HRD practices should be supported by a policy and documentary frame work