A survey of training needs of administrative staff in the Faculties/ Schools / Institutes of the University of Nairobi

Abstract

The purpose of the Training Needs Assessment .Survey is to help organizations evaluate their current training programs. In this study a survey was carried out among the non teaching administrative staff in the faculties/schools/institutes of the University of Nairobi to find out their training needs. The study sought to establish the extent of their training to perform broad and specific task to achieve the core objectives of their faculties/school/institutes. They are categorized as Administrative Assistants, Senior Administrative Assistants and Assistant Registrars. They work under the general supervision of the deans and directors of their respective faculties/ schools/institutes. The deans and directors are members of the teaching staff in the university. The study was carried by seeking the opinions of the Administrative staff themselves and those of their supervisors regarding the kind of the training needs they required. The research adopted both quantitative and qualitative methods where information was sought through self administered questionnaires from the staff themselves and from their supervisors. The data collected was processed and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) technique. The study found out that core objective of the faculties/schools/institutes is teaching, research and consultancy. It further found out that in order to achieve the core objectives the administrative staff perform both broad and specific tasks such as students and staff matters, implementing University-wide rules and regulations, handling general public enquiries, administration and planning duties, students' registration, admission, examination and record keeping, amongst other duties. The study found that the training needs of the Administrative staff included skills in; public relations, supervision and administration, communication and report writing, team building, complaint handling and solving, human resource and management. The study recommended that the University of Nairobi should have a clearly stated training policy indicating guidelines of training needs assessment, training programmes and post training evaluation.