Government Training Programs Research Articles

Implementation of the Gianyar Aman Sejahtera Regional People's Business Credit Program (KURDA GAS) in Pre-Prosperous Community MSMEs

KURDA GAS was launched to help the community in obtaining capital without the need for collateral, especially for the underprivileged. The purpose of this study is to find out how the Implementation of the Gianyar Aman Sejahtera Regional People's Business Credit Program (KURDA GAS) in MSMEs of the Underprivileged Community. This study uses a qualitative descriptive research method with an inductive approach. This research was conducted at PT. BPR Regional Bank Gianyar (Perseroda) The results of the study show several factors that cause the KURDA GAS program to not be maximized. Inhibiting Factors: Lack of Understanding and Knowledge, Complicated Administrative Procedures, Weak Business Capacity and Management, Limited Guarantees, Market Competition. Supporting Factors: Local Government Support, Training and Assistance Programs, Improved Economic Conditions, Partnerships with Financial Institutions, Infrastructure and Access to Technology.

Organic dairy farming in Bangladesh: current status, challenges and prospects

Organic dairy farming (ODF) is a method of dairy production that emphasizes the use of natural and sustainable practices, aiming to minimize synthetic inputs, promote animal welfare, and protect the environment. The aim of this review is to elucidate the current status, challenges and prospects of the ODF in Bangladesh. Starting from the current situation, the challenges and future potential of the ODF are presented, as well as strategies to overcome the difficulties are also highlighted. The ODF has the great potential, challenges and opportunities in Bangladesh. This involves the production of milk, meat and dairy products using sustainable and organic practices. Farmers need certification, and challenges include limited awareness, access to organic inputs, and market demand. Government initiatives, training programs, and cooperative models can support the growth of the ODF. Market opportunities and ongoing research are essential considerations. Animals raised in the ODF systems are provided access to pasture or outdoor areas and are fed organic feed, which is free from synthetic additives, antibiotics and hormones. The transition to the ODF is driven by a combination of economic, environmental, and health-related motivations, aiming to produce dairy products in a more sustainable, economically viable and environmentally friendly manner. Organic dairy farmers prioritize the well-being of their animals and advocate for a natural environment, which is integral to animal welfare. The popularity of organic products, including meat, dairy, and value-added items, from these producers continues to rise, driven by the expanding organic market, higher prices for organic milk, and consumer preferences for products from more sustainable production systems. Despite a mammoth of challenges exist in the ODF, farmers need to implement and adhere to strict standards for organic products, animal welfare and the use of organic inputs to gain the full benefits of this sustainable farming system. This review article examines the present status of the ODF industry, emphasizing key considerations, management practices, challenges, and future prospects. It also provides insights into the relevant regulatory authorities, aiming to inform farmers and stakeholders in Bangladesh and beyond about ODF. However, there is a need for future research to concentrate on improving sustainability and efficiency within the ODF sector. Asian Australas. J. Food Saf. Secur. 2024, 8(1), 13-26

Digitalization and small businesses supply chain financing: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

Supply chain finance continues to play an important role in servicing businesses that have limited access to finance. With the disruptions associated with the fourth industrial revolution, opportunities exist in Africa to increase participation by small businesses. While the effect of digitalization on supply chain finance has been explored, evidence from Africa is still limited. This study sought to determine the effect of digitalization on supply chain financing of small businesses in Africa. The study utilized a dataset that consists of observations from 4409 small businesses in sub-Saharan Africa, including agricultural businesses. Four indicators of digitalization (use of company websites, social media, online advertisements, and mobile phone ownership) were used to compute and index digitalization. A logit regression model was fitted on the dataset to determine the effect of digitalization on supply chain finance. The results showed that digitalization significantly affects adoption of supply chain finance by small businesses. The results were robust and did not change significantly due to the inclusion of confounding factors. The results additionally indicated that supply chain financing is also affected by education level, company age and government training programmes in supply chain financing (p < 0.05), although there was a significant difference in the adoption of supply chain finance across countries and between small agricultural businesses and businesses from other sectors of the economy. Thus, any efforts to improve financing activities of small businesses should consider their digitalization development. Investments in digitalization infrastructure by Africa governments should be scaled up. The regulatory environment should be kept favourable to facilitate development of inclusive digital markets. Future research should explore available digital solutions, adoption costs and factors that affect demand by small businesses in sub-Saharan Africa.

Organizational Knowledge Management Practices and Their Impact on Organizational Focus—Assessing the Case of the Service Industry in Ghana

This research study investigated the importance of organizational knowledge capital in service-oriented firms in Ghana. The study’s findings indicate that knowledge capital is a crucial resource for these firms and can be derived from various sources, including government regulations, customer feedback, and training programs. The study found that firms considered knowledge more valuable if it enhanced customer satisfaction and reputation rather than solely focused on developing new products and services. The study found that firms measured the impact of their knowledge based on several metrics, including revenue goals, the facilitation of learning for future efforts, and the development of new products and services. The study further suggests that knowledge asset mapping can aid organizations in properly accounting for and tracking knowledge resources, which can enhance the ability of managers to concentrate these resources on knowledge risks and opportunities. The study also found a positive correlation between organizational focus and the organization’s asset map, indicating that a variation in organizational focus may affect how knowledge asset mapping is organized. Additionally, the study found evidence suggesting that productivity increases with increased organizational knowledge, indicating the need for businesses to set up thorough knowledge management systems to compare internal organizational performance to market and consumer expectations.

Role of formal and informal networks in the relationship between government support and Ghanaian indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation

PurposeThis study aims to assess the potential mediating effects of formal and informal networks in the relationship between government support and Ghanaian indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation.Design/methodology/approachThis study was a cross-sectional design, where the structured questionnaire was used in gathering data from 301 indigenous Ghanaian firms. The path estimation was conducted by running structural equation modelling in AMOS v.23.FindingsIt was concluded that government support had a significant positive effect on Ghanaian indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation. Formal network was found to partially mediate the relationship between government support and indigenous firms’ degree of internationalisation. Finally, it was concluded that informal networks had no mediating effect.Research limitations/implicationsOne limitation is that the effect of the government support and network strategy was only explored on indigenous exporters, meaning that exporters which did not fall within the definition of indigenous firms were excluded from the study. Future studies could conduct a comparative study on the same variables, using indigenous and non-indigenous firms.Practical implicationsIt is recommended that Ghanaian exporters should participate in government training and workshop programmes focussing on building export business strategies and networking to improve export activities.Originality/valueThis study’s unique contribution is its investigation of how networking portfolio, including formal and informal ties, helps explain the nexus between government support and the internationalisation of local firms in the developing market, such as Ghanaians.

Assessing the Quality of Local Government Training on Small Medium Enterprises(SMEs) in the Implementation of Local Economic Development initiatives (LED) in Ghana

Emerging economies are increasingly pressurised to implement local economic development (LED) initiatives as an intervention strategy for sustainability. Prior studies have underscored the significant achievement of first-world countries after embracing LED initiatives such as rapid job creation, poverty reduction, and money generation. This study presents and analyses the quality of MMDAs training on SMEs in implementing local economic development (LED) initiatives in Ghana’s Ga West and Kpando Municipalities. This study adopted a case study research design using a quantitative approach to assess the quality of local government training programmes for SMEs implementing LED in the Ga West and the Kpando Municipalities. Three hundred and thirty-one (331) SMEs were used for the study. The study found that most SMEs have knowledge of business-related training programmes available at the Municipalities and have also benefited from these training programmes. The available training programmes included capacity building, Record/Bookkeeping, Safety/Health and Environmental management training, among others. However, some of these training programmes did not meet the SMEs’ training needs, while others did not know this. Finally, the paper provided recommendations to improve how training policies.

Sustainable IoT Solution for Freshwater Aquaculture Management

In recent years, we have seen the impact of global warming on changing weather patterns. The changing weather patterns have shown a significant effect on the annual rainfall. Due to the lack of annual rainfall, developing countries like India have seen a substantial loss in annual crop production. Indian economy largely depends on agro products. To compensate for the economic loss, the Indian government encouraged the farmers to do integrated aquaculture-based farming. Despite government subsidies and training programs, most farmers find it difficult to succeed in aquaculture-based farming. Aquaculture farming needs skills to maintain and monitor underwater environments. The lack of skills for monitoring and maintenance makes the aquaculture business more difficult for farmers. To simplify the pearl farming aquaculture, we have proposed an Internet of Things (IoT)-based intelligent monitoring and maintenance system. The proposed system monitors the water quality and maintains an adequate underwater environment for better production. To maintain an aquaculture environment, we have forecasted the change in water parameters using an ensemble learning method based on random forests (RF). The performance of the RF model compared with the linear regression (LR), support vector regression (SVR), and gradient boosting machine (GBM). The obtained results show that the RF model outperformed the forecast of the DO with 1.428 mean absolute error (MAE) and pH with 0.141 MAE.

Well-being capital and government’s intervention to dam’s affected residents: Pak Mun Dam, Thailand

Government plays an important role as a well-being capital provider through policies, strategies, or even direct provision to local residents to improve their livelihoods. Pak Mun Dam is one of the most controversial dams in Thailand, and government intervention is needed to solve the issues the dam has created. This study tests the premise that government intervention will impact overall well-being only through structural means by providing strategy and policies related to social and economic well-being. Government training programs and government services will impact over all well-being through social well-being. A satisfactory solution to the Pak Mun Dam situation will impact overall well-being through economic well-being. In this study a number of items, related to different well-being dimensions, were examined. The findings suggest that appropriate policy must address the four significant items which surfaced in the economic well-being measure and ten items in the social well-being dimension.

Experiences of Partnership With Rural Community in Managing Forest Resources

Participation is a dominant concept governing institutional planning, globally. But literature review reveals that the outcome of participation has been variable in various settings leading to a belief that there exists a gap between what is written about participation and what happens, in reality. The study adopts a case study approach and focusses on a case of community forest management and planning from the state of West Bengal, India. This state has been the cradle of a number of decentralization initiatives. Following the tenets of behavioural geography, the study tries to understand the behaviour of the stakeholders in participation in the planning process, the factors affecting it, and the nature of engagement process. The study concludes that the level of local participation not only on the willingness of the formal institutions convening participation but also on the understanding of the community of the socio-economic and political processes affecting them, accessibility to resources like information, education, government training programmes, etc.

It takes a family to lighten the load! The impact of family-to-business support on the stress and creativity of women micro-entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether family-to-business support acts as a job resource that attenuates the negative effects of work demands on the stress and creativity of women micro-entrepreneurs in the informal sector in Sri Lanka.Design/methodology/approachData from 359 women micro-entrepreneurs and their respective case officers in local government were used to test the hypothesized relationship between work demands and their creativity through the mediating mechanism of stress and the moderating effect of family-to-business support on the said relationship.FindingsWork demands reduced creativity through heightening the levels of stress faced by women micro-entrepreneurs. However, family-to-business support reduced the negative influence of work demands on creativity through stress.Practical implicationsWomen micro-entrepreneurs should build strong family ties to obtain support from family members. In addition, government training programs that target women micro-entrepreneurs should be extended to include their immediate family members.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by examining whether family-to-business support buffers the negative effects of work demands for women micro-entrepreneurs in the informal sector. In doing so it makes a theoretical contribution by testing the key tenets of the JD-R model in entrepreneurial settings.

Engendering inclusive e-government use through citizen IT training programs

Around the world, governments turn to information technology (IT) training programs to enhance equitable delivery of online public services to citizens. However, the effectiveness of these citizen training programs has gone unexplored. This study is motivated by two objectives: 1) To evaluate whether citizen participation in government training programs is associated with greater e-government use among participants, and 2) To assess whether the strength of this relationship varies according to whether a citizen is elderly, disabled, or not – those who are elderly or disabled tend to use e-government the least. We use data from South Korean to examine these objectives. Findings indicate citizen participation in government IT training programs is positively associated with e-government use and that this relationship is stronger for citizens who are elderly or disabled. These findings highlight the potential of government IT training programs to mitigate the digital divide. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Mixed Methods Evaluation and Teaching with Guatemalan Lay Midwives about Obstetrical Emergencies

Abstract Guatemalan lay midwives are on the front lines of a crisis. The Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in Guatemala is 65th highest in the world at 120 deaths per 1,000 births. Part of the problems is not lay midwives attend the majority of births despite lacking knowledge about obstetrical emergencies. Government training programs established in 1955 have not changed lay midwives' knowledge, partially due to culturally insensitively. Government training programs are taught in Spanish with written material, even though most lay midwives are illiterate and speak Mayan dialects. The purpose of this mixed methods study was threefold: to explore lay midwives' knowledge, attitudes and practices about obstetrical emergencies, to evaluate the effect of a culturally sensitive oral teaching in the native language on lay midwives' knowledge of obstetrical emergencies, and to determine if lay midwives retained knowledge from a past, culturally sensitive oral teaching in the native. language about postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). During two weeks in September 2016, 191 lay midwives from more than 30 villages participated in 11 trainings throughout the remote Peten. A one-group pretest posttest design was used for the quantitative evaluation. Focus groups were used for the qualitative evaluation. The Long Table Approach was used to develop a matrix of common themes from focus groups. A checklist from the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM) was used to evaluate knowledge of obstetrical emergencies and of PPH before and after the teaching. Results indicated lay midwives retained knowledge about obstetrical emergencies immediately after the culturally sensitive teaching, but not about PPH eight years later. Focus groups themes revealed lay midwives lack education, equipment, support and transportation for addressing obstetrical emergencies. Future teachings should use a similar format to address the needs of illiterate participants in resource-poor settings and should retest participants within a year

Training abroad and technological capacity building: Analysing the role of Chinese training and scholarship programmes for Tanzanians

The case study in this paper examines the contribution of scholarship programmes provided by the Chinese government in improving human capital in the fields of science, technology, and innovation in Tanzania. The case study constitutes a survey of 85 Tanzanians who have received training in China, and interviews with 13 individuals including some of the surveyed trainees, scholarship administrators, and other stakeholders. While critical comments were raised, the trainees in our sample were largely positive about the Chinese training experiences. Besides the direct transfer of skills and exposure to China’s modernity, the indirect outcome of technology transfer has come about through the importation of equipment and technical literature. However efforts to transfer and apply acquired knowledge have been regularly impeded by structural barriers including cross-cultural communication problems, differences in attitude, and the fact that in several cases Tanzania does not have the capacity to absorb some of the advanced Chinese technologies taught in the courses. Two-way communication is needed in order to inform and adapt the Chinese government training programmes to the specific needs of the recipient African economies.

Discrete Choice Modeling of Freight Outsourcing Decisions of Canadian Manufacturers

Behavioral freight transportation modeling is an approach to enhance the quality of freight and logistics policy assessments. Outsourcing of freight activities is one of the essential decisions that firms make. Such decisions are influenced by factors such as economic conditions, competition, the industry, firm strategies, and firm characteristics. In this paper, the authors introduce a set of discrete choice models—binary and multinomial logit—that quantify the effect of some of these factors on outsourcing of the freight-related activities of goods production and logistics for Canadian manufacturers. The models were estimated with the use of data from the Survey of Innovation and Business Strategy obtained from Statistics Canada. The models consider firm characteristics (e.g., employment, number of products or services, and supplier locations), economic conditions, and local and international competition. The models also show the influence of the use of innovation and advanced technologies and measure the impact of government support programs for businesses (e.g., government grants) on outsourcing decisions. Models that explain international freight outsourcing are also presented. Model results highlight that freight outsourcing culture differs from one industry to another. Firms that use government training programs are more likely to outsource freight operations locally, whereas those that use government grants outsource their freight activities internationally. Model validation indicated acceptable predictive capabilities. Simplified models that were based on industry classification, location, and firm size were estimated and are to be used for future microsimulation purposes.

Enforcing Nationalization in the GCC : Private Sector Progress , Strategy and Policy for Sustainable Nationalization

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been continuously struggling to develop effective Nationalization strategies that will provide adequate government enforcement, training programs and employment opportunities for Nationals in the private sector industries. Yousef (2010) states one of the main problems related to this topic is that the GCC nations have many Nationals who are university graduates with BA, MBA or PhD degrees, yet they have little actual workplace knowledge and no job skills or work experience. Henderson (2011) states another problem is the GCC governments do not want to alienate multinational corporations by forcing them to hire Nationals who may not be qualified enough to fill their job vacancies.

The Employer's Guide to Supported Employment

In 2010, 14.7 per cent of the general population of Ireland was jobless and 37 per cent of people with disabilities aged 15–64 were employed with a quarter of these were in part-time jobs. High unemployment increased barriers to employment for people with disabilities with a 48 per cent increase in the numbers applying for jobs. Highly qualified unemployed were taking on low to medium skilled jobs and accessing Government employment schemes and training programmes. It was difficult to access employers who were positive towards people with disabilities. A STEP Supported Employment project analysed barriers to mainstream employment. When faced with many barriers it was decided to create a project to access employers directly and seek a partner who had access to a large number of employers. In April of 2010 IrishJobs.ie was approached by Mary O Halloran from STEP SE. Mary had brought together a number of similar agencies and asked IrishJobs.ie if they would be interested in building a resource to encourage and support employers to hire people with disabilities. IrishJobs.ie is a leading national e-recruitment company Irishjobs.ie was approached as e-recruitment methods were mostly complex to navigate and 80% of vacancies are advertised online. The hope was by making the information more visible and more accessible employers who are interested in finding out more about hiring people with disabilities will get the guidance they require. Of course, it may also be that employers who had not thought about hiring people with a disability will consider it once they find out more via the Guide. A team was put together from other disability organisations & irishjobs.ie to identify the obstacles for people with disabilities to e-recruitment and a guide was developed to demonstrate the benefits of employing people with disabilities. IrishJobs.ie was very enthusiastic about this project. Since this IrishJobs.ie has provided backing for the National Job Shadow events with the IASE. All content on the Guide has come from Supported Employment Agencies. The expertise of IrishJobs.ie came in the design and presentation of the content. Before the Guide was launched it was reviewed and approved by a number of agencies involved STEP Supported Employment a service of Saint John of God Community Services Ltd, worked alongside IrishJobs.ie, other IASE members and Service Users to develop this user-friendly Guide.

Mandated state-level open government training programs

Abstract Although every state in the country has recognized the importance of government transparency by enacting open government provisions, few of those statutes require training programs to encourage records custodians to comply with the law. Ten states mandate training in how to legally respond to public records requests, and some mandates are stronger than others. Using the qualitative research methods of legal statutory analysis, interviews, and content analysis, this paper explores how those states comply with the training mandates. The paper evaluates trainers' pedagogical goals, their opinions of the process, and their perceptions of the people they train. It concludes with suggestions for how states can develop open government training programs.

Action Learning and Its Applications in Government: The Case of South Korea

Action learning has become popular in government and business training programs around the world. The adoption of action learning by multinational corporations, such as GE and others, has stimulated the Korean government into utilizing it for management and leadership development. The Korean government is a latecomer in adopting action learning. In other words, the application and utilization of action learning in central government training programs are basically new developments over the last couple of years. We report the experiences of the Korean central government in using action learning. We also present some lessons learned and implications for further developments.

Strategies to increase agricultural productivity and reduce land degradation: evidence from Uganda

AbstractThis paper estimates a structural econometric model of household decisions regarding income strategies, participation in programs and organisations, crop choices, land management, and labour use, and their implications for agricultural production and soil erosion; based upon a survey of over 450 households and their farm plots in Uganda. Many factors have context‐specific impacts and involve trade‐offs between increasing production and reducing land degradation. Government agricultural extension and training programs contribute to higher value of crop production in the lowlands, but to soil erosion in the highlands. By contrast, non‐governmental organization (NGO) programs focusing on agriculture and environment help to reduce erosion, but have less favourable impacts on production in the lowlands. Education increases household incomes, but also reduces crop production in the lowlands. Poverty has mixed impacts on agricultural production, depending on the nature of poverty: smaller farms obtain higher crop production per hectare, while households with fewer livestock have lower crop production. Population pressure contributes to agricultural intensification, but also to erosion in the densely populated highlands. Several household income strategies contribute to increased value of crop production, without significant impacts on soil erosion. We find little evidence of impact of access to markets, roads and credit, land tenure or title on agricultural intensification and crop production and land degradation. In general, the results imply that the strategies to increase agricultural production and reduce land degradation must be location‐specific, and that there are few ‘win‐win’ opportunities to simultaneously increase production and reduce land degradation.

Strategies to increase agricultural productivity and reduce land degradation: evidence from Uganda

This paper estimates a structural econometric model of household decisions regarding income strategies, participation in programs and organisations, crop choices, land management, and labour use, and their implications for agricultural production and soil erosion; based upon a survey of over 450 households and their farm plots in Uganda. Many factors have context-specific impacts and involve trade-offs between increasing production and reducing land degradation. Government agricultural extension and training programs contribute to higher value of crop production in the lowlands, but to soil erosion in the highlands. By contrast, non-governmental organization (NGO) programs focusing on agriculture and environment help to reduce erosion, but have less favourable impacts on production in the lowlands. Education increases household incomes, but also reduces crop production in the lowlands. Poverty has mixed impacts on agricultural production, depending on the nature of poverty: smaller farms obtain higher crop production per hectare, while households with fewer livestock have lower crop production. Population pressure contributes to agricultural intensification, but also to erosion in the densely populated highlands. Several household income strategies contribute to increased value of crop production, without significant impacts on soil erosion. We find little evidence of impact of access to markets, roads and credit, land tenure or title on agricultural intensification and crop production and land degradation. In general, the results imply that the strategies to increase agricultural production and reduce land degradation must be location-specific, and that there are few ‘win-win’ opportunities to simultaneously increase production and reduce land degradation.