THE EFFECT OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF BANK EMPLOYEES IN NIGERIA ( A CASE STUDY OF UNION BANK)
IntroductionÂ
The private and public sector of the Nigeria economy have tried in their effort to address some of the problems associated with manpower training and development. Since independence, both the state and federal government determination to achieve self sufficiency in the workforce has called for higher level of technical and manpower to steer up commercial and industrial activities.
Ogbonna (1984) observed that plan at the preliminary stage, however faced inaccurate statistical data for effective national labour force planning. The planner also encountered problems of whether to focus on higher or lower level of education to meet up with the higher, demand for industrial, governmental machinery and democratic ideas of equal opportunity for all citizens. The plan is aimed at striking a balance between the need for skilled manpower and general mass education.
Also in the 1980 plan, government gave priority to the issue of training and development of its manpower but rather than solving the problems and ensuring adequate training of the employees, it suffered some set back arising from lack of infrastructure and takes off tools such as good road, accommodation etc.
The banking industry like any other industry in Nigeria was also affected by manpower problems. Oyebola (1980) observed that the earliest bank such as standard bank now First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Barclays bank now Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Arab bank, National bank, other indigenous banks, faced a lot of managerial, technical and operational skills problems. These problems lead to the collapse of some indigenous banks, which could not withstand the competitions posed by foreign banks. The common training given to the personnel in the bank then was on the job training or instruction as to how and what job to be done. Thus, there were no formal and informal training.
Ejiofor (1981), identified some major courses of failure in manpower development effort in Nigeria, these include:
- There is more concentration of training between the top management rather than sharing the training between the top and lower level management personnel.
-  Planning without adequate manpower statistics leading to problems of implementation.
- Both government and business organization under funded manpower development programme.
2.1Â History of Training in the Banking IndustryÂ
In overcoming the problems above, modem training was pioneered in Nigeria banking industry by first bank of Nigeria PIc, 1949 and had its training school in 1953. Since then, other banks have aspired to do likewise and it has resulted in the emergence of many training schools in the banking sector. However at the global level employee training programme was greatly influenced by the following bodies:
- Industrial Training fund (ITF) came to being in 1971and it aimed at encouraging adequate training of manpower to run industry and commerce. ITF decree of 1971 enforced all companies having at least 23 persons in the payroll to pay one percent (1 %) of their annual rolls in the fund. The money is used to promote and acquire skills to generate a pool of indigenous trained manpower to meet the nation requirement.
- Centre for Management Development (CMD)
- National Institute for Policy and Strategy Studies (NIPSS)
- Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON)
- Higher institutions such as universities and polytechnics also contribute. It trains personnel in bank and other financial institutes. it also promote, protects and advances knowledge.
