Assessment of Off -Time the Job Training and Development

Abstract

This study sought to assess the off-the-job training and development of employer„ commercial banks in Tanzania. The study was prompted by the practice that postgraduate students who were working in various commercial banks had first to their posts before embarking on studies. They thus had to attend 'off-job-training' at their costs. The study cases were the Arusha and Moshi branches of the National Microfinance Bank (NMB). The specific objectives of this study were to: i) find out whether or not banks did develop appropriate off-the-job training development programmes; ii) determine whether or not those programmes were well implemented; iii) establish the benefits of training and development to banks; and iv) identify factors which hindered the implementation of effective training and development programmes. This research was based on a case study method whereby the selected NMB branches were subjected to an intensive investigation. The targeted population of the study included all NMB staff members. But, due to resource constraints, the study involved staff from only two branches (Moshi and Arusha. The population size was estimated at 389 employees. A purposeful or judgemental non-probability technique was used to select managers and all personnel officers. To ensure that all categories of employees (managers and nonmanagers) were included in the sample, a stratified random sampling technique was used. The sample consisted of 78 respondents which included 8 respondents from the management cadre (heads of departments and units, 37 from the loan unit, 8 from the customer care unit, 13 tellers, 6 respondents from the HR department, and 6 from the corporate department.