AN EVALUATIVE STUDY OF MANPOWER TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE

Abstract
This research work was designed to study training and development of employees in service organization. This study titled “An evaluative study of manpower training and development in the public service: A case study of Nigeria Port Authority of Nigeria (NPA) Lagos zone is of the view of finding out the way by which training and development can be conducted. The objective of this study is to highlight the advantages of human resources training and development and recommended an appropriate measure that could help improve the current human resources training programmes. Relevant data for this research work were collected from both primary and secondary sources of data. A descriptive method was used for this study. The total population of the staff in the organization is 250 out of which questionnaires were drawn from staff of the organization which constitute a sample size of 154. The statistical instrument used in testing the validity of the hypothesis was Chi-square. Among other findings of the work was that training and development programmes improve was that training and development programmes improve productivity and better performance. The research therefore recommends that there should be a free flow of information to enable all the staff to be aware of the training and development programme available to them both internally and externally.
 
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Manpower training and development must be based on a need analysis derived from a comparison of actual performance” and behavior with “required performance” and behavior. Manpower training and development is one of the major ways organization invests in the workforce for greater return today and even in the foreseeable future. Organizational effectiveness rests on the efficient and effective performance of workforce that makes up the organization. The efficient and effective performance of the workforce in turn, rest on the richness of the knowledge, skills and abilities possessed by the workforce. Manpower training and development in most organizations is a continuous act/exercise.
The inexorable march of time and the ceaseless glamour for social change combined to make adaptability and continuing preparation of the workforce as inevitable as the initial acquisition of knowledge and skills. This cannot happen if employees training and development do not occur in an enterprise. In order to maximize the productivity and efficiency of the organization, every executive, manager or supervisor in a public or private organization has the responsibility and indeed the bounding duty to ensure the development of their employees who have requisite knowledge and expertise.
Training is like sharpening an existing skill in order to reflect the trends in technology and other social cultural environment changes of an organization. Productivity is the goal of today’s competitive business world and training can be a spring board to enhance productivity. The aim is to enable them contribute their full measure to the welfare, health and development of the organization (Onah 2013). The main objective of training and development in service organization is to increase efficiency of employees with the resulting in corporate productivity. This account for why large number of fund and time is expected by organizational one period of the other in the improvement of the skills of their employees at various levels. 
The principle intention of training according to AKPAN (2012), is to equip people with the knowledge required to qualify them for a particular position of employment, or to improve their skills and efficiency in the position they already hold.   Manpower development on the other hand implies growth and the acquisition of wide experience for future strategic advantages of the organization. Manpower training and development, therefore improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the employee. therefore, the aim of this research is to know the current state, nature, procedure and method of training and development used by the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) for their employees and let’s not forget that any organization that has no plan for the training and development of its staff is less that dynamic, for learning is a continuous process and acquired skills gets absolete when the environment changes. Also, a popular caption in the field of personnel management says “if you think training and development are expensive try ignorance”. While training and development prosper organization, ignorance destroys it. Therefore workers like machines must be updated on constant basis or else, they end up becoming absolute or misfit.
BRIEF HISTORY OF NIGERIA PORT AUTHORITY:Port operations and development in Nigeria began in the middle of the 19th century effort towards the provision of facilities for ocean going vessels started with the opening of Lagos Lagoon in the early 1990.  The Apapa port in the south west embarked on development in 1913 and construction of the first four deeps water berths of 548.64m at the port began in 1921. The Nigeria port Authority was established as a address the institutional weakness that bordered on lack of coherent policy framework as port development were done on ad hoc basis driven by changes on the level and demand of sea borne trade.
In 2003, the federal Government of  Nigeria initiated the drive towards improving efficiency at our ports, and the landlord model was adopted for all the Nigerian ports. This gave rise to the concession of 25 terminals to private terminal operators with lease arrangement ranging from 10-25 years. One of the concession was a build, operate and Transfer (BOT) arrangement. Also in the process of reorganizing the ports, the former eight (8) ports were reduces to six (6) major parts, with two (2) ports in Lagos and four (4) in the east namely; Lagos Port Complex, tin can – Island port complex, Calabar port, Rivers Ports, Onne Ports complex and Delta Ports complex respectively.
1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
This research at it deals with the training and development of employees in service organization is meant to find out the efficiency and effectiveness of training and development programme in service organization with reference to Nigeria Port Authority Lagos as an organization governing the use of ports in Nigeria serves as a source of transportation, supply distribution and maintenance round the nation. For this reason, it encounters numerous problems which range from
1)  Lack of qualified instructors and consultants to undertake training courses.
2)  Lack of essential training tools to
3)  Lack of effective communication within the organization which makes it possible for employees to know about training opportunities available to them.
1.3   OBJECTIVES/PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this research is to probe into the evaluation of the effect of manpower training and development in service organization using Nigeria port Authority Lagos as a case study with a view to find out how the organization is performing in terms of its employee training and development
The following are the specific objectives of the study
i.  To highlight the advantages of employee training and development in service organization.
ii. To examine the current training and development of employees in the organization and Nigeria Port Authority Lagos in particular.
iii. To increase the general knowledge and understanding of individual members.
iv. To recommend appropriate measures that could help improve the current manpower training program. To increase efficiency and effectiveness of employees with the resulting increase in corporate productivity.