TRAINING DESIGN AND EMPLOYEE SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN MATHARI NATIONAL TEACHING AND REFERRAL HOSPITAL, NAIROBI CITY COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Public hospitals which seek to elicit and improve the commitment of employees thereby strengthening their staff base must improve on skill development through training of the employees. This would increase the chances of employees increasing their performance in the Healthcare systems. There are limited studies done relating to the effect of employee training design on skill development in the workplace especially in the public hospitals in Kenya. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of training design on employee skill development in Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kenya. Kolb Theory was used to explain the relationship between the variables. Descriptive research design was used in describing mystics and the extent of relationship between variables. Mathari National teaching and referral hospital was the unit of analysis and the target respondents were 383 employees working in the Hospital. Due to the large number of respondents, a sample size of 195 respondents was arrived at through the use of stratified random sampling procedure. Questionnaires and interview schedules were used to collect primary data. Qualitative data was analyzed through the use of narrative analysis while mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentages and regression analysis was used to analyze the quantitative data. The findings indicated that majority of the employees agreed that there was a thorough needs assessment for each trainee and that the knowledge and skills from training was relevant to their job. The study found that training equip employees with new formats of accomplishing their tasks and that trainings are tailored on employee competencies. The regression results indicated that training design had a positive effect on skill development. The results further indicated that majority of the respondents argued that they are able to learn new skills and knowledge and apply it in their work. They are also capable of absorbing the material taught in a training program. The study recommends that training design should be tailored to the needs of the staff and hospital which often lead to good results in developing a good training design in line with the needs of the staff.  

Keywords: Training Design, Skill Development, Employee Performance, Public Sector