A Study on Training Effectiveness and Academic Staffs Performance in Higher Learning Institutions in Zanzibar

Abstract

Training has become an essential part of today’s successful businesses of any nature and not only for acquiring capabilities but for focusing on the effectiveness with linking to employee performance and retention. This paper examines the training effectiveness and performance of academic staff in higher learning institutions with case observation at the Institute of Public Administration Zanzibar. The study specifically determines the contribution of training outcomes to the level of academic performance of staff in the Institute of Public Administration and examines the trends of training schemes for the academic staff and their influence within the institute. A descriptive survey approach was employed to tackle the target and a survey questionnaire was used as a tool to gather data together with interviews and documentary review to elicit the information from the sample. Fairly representative samples of 115 respondents who make up 10% of the total population were chosen from academic staff trainees, non-academic staff, and students. The qualitative data were subjected to analysis through Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and quantitative data were summarized in tables and charts. The findings revealed that existing staff training has a positive contribution to the academic performance in the institute with 83%. In addition, there is an existence of training opportunities for employees of the Institute but the institute has no specific schedule for staff training. The findings also show that getting on Design Quarterly Staff Training on Specific Institution Needs, Conduct Needs Assessment for Long Term and Short Term Training, Prepare Sufficient Budget for Staff Training, Benchmarking the Performance Outcomes Prior and Post Staff Training, Developing the Measurable Performance Indicators and Conduct Continually Performance Assessment is very important to the Institution academic staffs. These results show that the management of the Institute should set up a training policy that will include a well-designed training schedule for the academic staff. Also, the institute should conduct training Needs Assessments for long-term and short-term training in order to identify the effective training for its staff and design quarterly staff training on specific institutional needs.