Training and development as a strategic tool in human capacity development: a case of Mbombela government employees, South Africa.

Abstract

Training and development programmes became an essential part of employment activities in South Africa as a result of the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 and Skills Development Levies Act 9 of 1999 that enforced all employers with wage bills beyond the acknowledged threshold to contribute 1% of the monthly wage bill towards the training of their workforce. In response to the national demand to make the workplace an active learning environment, various government departments have training activities scheduled to provide avenues for their workforce to relearn, upskill, and develop themselves considering ever-changing work demands. This study examines different approaches and resources required to conduct training and developmental programmes used by public services in South Africa and evaluated the role of the programmes in human capacity development. A self-developed Likert-scale quantitative research instrument was designed for data collection from the employees of the Mpumalanga government complex by using non-probability sampling, based on the convenience and availability of respondents. The complex has approximately 1 278 government employees working in skilled, semi-skilled, and managerial positions who were eligible to participate in this study. However, based on the 5% precision level, a sample size of 286–333 respondents were deemed appropriate for the study. Of the 400 questionnaires distributed, 286 useful responses were retrieved. Structural equation modelling, Mann Whitney U, and Kruskall Wallis were used to analyse the three study objectives. The reliability of the self-developed research instrument was confirmed by using Cronbach’s alpha, which yielded a coefficient of 0.853, showing that the instrument was highly reliable. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to validate the study. The findings revealed that there is a positive relationship between training and development and human capacity development. Further analysis indicated a statistically significant impact of training dimensions and development dimensions on HCD dimensions. The findings for the third study objective revealed differences in employee attitudes towards T&D programmes based on job title and gender. The study recommends that employers, especially the public sector, consider introducing customised T&D programmes for individual employees and training materials should be designed to address the specific needs of individuals or groups of employees with similar needs.