CHAPTER ONE 

INTRODUCTION 

1 .1 Background to the study 

The importance of training and manpower development for the successful operation and maintenance of civil aviation system is a fast paced, competitive industry cannot be over-emphasized.

Training has an important role to play in achieving the aim and objectives of any organization. It brings about changes in knowledge, skills and attitude.  It ensures that skilled managers are available to plan effectively this delivery of high quality service.

Therefore, training and development of manpower is indispensable to organisations, especially organisations that seek to be efficient and effective. This is because the efficiency and effectiveness of any organisation depends, among other things, on the performance of its manpower. 

Training, as Stahl (1962) observed, is so important that it is more efficient to improve the skills of existing employees to maximum through training than to rely solely on recruitment to provide the hypothetical highly skilled manpower needed. Arnoff (1971) observes that training and development foster the initiative and creativity of employees and help to prevent manpower obsolescence, which may be due to age, attitude or the inability of a person to adapt him or herself to technological changes. According to Obisi (2001), training is a process through which the skills, talent and knowledge of an employee is enhanced and increased. He argues further that training should take place once the needs and objectives for such training have been identified. According to Mamoria (1995) training is a practical and vital necessity because it enables employees to develop and rise within the organization and increase their fringe benefits and job security. Mamoria explains that training helps to mould employees’ attitudes and help them to contribute meaningfully to the organization. The organization benefits because of enhanced performance of employees. He further states that a well-trained employee would make a better and economic use of materials and equipment which go a long way to minimize wastages. According to Ohabunwa (1999) if organizations train their employees very well, managers and superiors would have the confidence to delegate authority to their subordinates but when subordinates are not properly trained, it would be difficult for authority to be delegated to them by their superiors. 

The Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT as the College is popularly known, is the foremost Civil Aviation Training College in Africa. Established by Act of Parliament No.31 of 1964 (as amended), the College is a comprehensive Civil Aviation Training Organization having five Training Schools uniquely co-located. The College’s half a century chequered history of training aviation professionals not only for Nigeria but the whole African region and beyond has made the College a house-hold name in aviation training world-wide. 

The objectives (as found in Students’ Handbook) for establishing the College are to: 

⦁ provide the civil aviation industry in Nigeria, in particular, and in the African continent in general with highly trained and skilled personnel, namely Pilots, Aircraft Maintenance Engineers, Aeronautical Telecommunications Engineers, Air Traffic 

Controllers, Aeronautical Communication Personnel, Cabin Crew, Flight Dispatchers, 

Aviation Security Personnel, etc. 

⦁ stimulate safe, regular, and efficient air transport services; and 

⦁ boost economic growth in Africa. 

In order to fulfil the above stated statutory objectives, the College is structured into five Training Schools, three Service Departments and a various number of Units and Sections under the office of the Rector. 

1.2 Statement of the Problem 

Training is a very important device in personnel management. In spite of the fact that no organisation can improve its services without continuous training and re-training of its staff, most workers in Nigerian public sector may not have been adequately exposed to training programme. This probably affects employees’ efficiency adversely and thus, it is certain that the public needs are not always satisfied (Eze, 2012). Organisations often plan meticulously for their investment in physical and capital resources. These plans are reviewed with utmost attention to the minute details while rarely do such organisations pay attention to human resources that activate, operate and coordinate other resources of production. Not many organisations consider the necessity for a well-defined and sustainable training and development for their staff members in order to upgrade their performance.  

One of the difficulties of successful training programme is how to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of training and development activities in a systematic manner. It is certainly important for organisations to provide a quantitative assessment of how training programmes influence organisational success. However, it is challenging to figure out which metrics to use, and how to incorporate them into post training assessment, how and when to follow-up, and how to adjust future training based on the result. 

Improving learning/training effectiveness is another concern for personnel management. Streamlining the training activities, designing a detailed curriculum for a training session, training delivery method, etc. are issues that learning organisations critically weigh in order to have a successful and solid skill development for trainees. It is a common knowledge that all jobs in organizations are done through people, yet over the years, most organizations have failed to attach the necessary attention to employee training and development (Mc Namara, 2008). NCAT, Zaria has the mission to consistently provide the Aviation Industry with Professionals and other personnel through training and related services for safe air transportation in accordance with International standards. One demanding way to keep this mission in perspective and attainable is to engage in continuous training of staff members. It is also essential that the performance of trained staff be evaluated in order to ascertain the impact and contribution of staff training to the corporate goal of the College.  

1.3 Research Questions 

To specify the problem explicitly, the following research questions are asked: 

⦁ What is the impact of training on the job performance of NCAT staff? 

⦁ Does the evaluation of the job performance of NCAT trained employees improve learning/training effectiveness? 

⦁ How does NCAT identify the training need of its employees? 

1.4 Objectives of the Study 

The basic objective of this study is to evaluate the effect training and manpower development has on the job performance of NCAT staff. While the subsidiary objectives of the study are to examine: 

⦁ The contribution and impact of staff training to the enhancement of the job performance of NCAT staff 

⦁ How post-training evaluation of the job performance of NCAT staff improves training effectiveness 

⦁ The strategy for the identification of the training need of NCAT staff 

1.5 Research Hypotheses 

In order to direct the focus of this study, the following hypotheses are formulated: 

H0 Job performance of NCAT employees is not enhanced by acquired knowledge and skills. 

H0 Evaluation of the job performance of NCAT trained employees does not enhance the effectiveness of training and development. 

1.6 Significance of the Study 

The aim of every training and development programme is to add value to human resource. The study of manpower training and development becomes imperative as changes (both of man and machine) are inevitable in every sphere of life. New discoveries of better performance of tasks and invention or innovation of technology are common phenomena in the twenty first century. As such, for workers to be up-to-date and abreast of modern trends and development, there is need for constant training, retraining and development of the skills and performance of workers.  

Staff training and development is a vital tool used by personnel department to remedy the job performance deficiency of staff and ultimately facilitate the achievement of the corporate goal of an organisation. Though researches have been conducted to assess the contribution of training and development to the overall success of organisations, the last stage of a complete training cycle (training evaluation) has suffered relative neglect. That is, little attention has been given to the contribution of training evaluation. 

This research is significant as it seeks, as one of its objectives, to examine how training evaluation improves the effectiveness of training/learning. The research attempted to know whether evaluation of the job performance of trained employees facilitates training transfer (application of acquired skills and knowledge in workplace) or training evaluation merely serves as feedback to management. Thus, the contribution of this study to knowledge is the examination of the importance of training evaluation to the entire training process.  

1.7 Scope of the Study 

This research work is focused on evaluation of manpower training and development programme in NCAT, Zaria. The study considers the training programme of the organisation from 2010 to 2013. The period of 2010-2013 was taken as members of staff of the College were exposed to new (current) development in various careers that can contribute significantly to the attainment of the College’s mandate and mission. The time frame for the study was chosen so as to evaluate the impact of modern training acquired by staff members on their job performance. The College is chosen because it plays critical role in the training of flight and non-flight officials in the Nigerian aviation industry. 

1.8 Limitations of the Study  

This dissertation was restricted to the effect of training and development on workers’ performance. In this study, the research focused only on three variables of training and development and job performance; training/learning effectiveness and training evaluation; and identification of the training needs of employees by employer among many other variable on training.  

The research was limited to the training programme of NCAT, Zaria. The study was also confronted with the difficulty of collecting primary data as the authority consulted with the letter of ‘TO WHO IT MAY CONCERN’ issued by the department was treated with contempt. However, after much time expended and with persistence, the training policy of Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) School was released on condition of anonymity. The training policy of Training Schools of the College is ‘classified and coded’, as such, granting of an official interview was extremely difficult.     

1.9 Operational Definition of Terms 

 Effect: this refers to the influence and changes in the behaviour, skills, knowledge and contribution of employees that is brought about by training. 

Evaluation : evaluation is the systematic investigation to ascertain whether training programme results in knowledge acquisition, skill development, effective behavioural changes in learners, training transfer, etc. or not. 

Job performance: this means the ability and capacity of an employee at a given time either before or after a training event (as the case may be) 

Learning: a change of a relatively permanent kind which may result in new behaviours, actions, and/or new understanding and knowledge gained through a formal process, spontaneously or incidentally, or through life experience. 

Learning organisation is one in which employees continuously broaden their horizon and expand their capacity to achieve the result they desire, and where new and expansive pattern of thinking is nurtured and encouraged. 

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