EMPLOYEES’ TRAINING PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES AT ETHIO-DJIBOUTI STANDARD GAUGE RAILWAY SHARE COMPANY

Abstract

Employees are backbones of an organization and Training plays a key role to achieve organizational goals by minimizing the gap between employees’ actual and desired skill. The main purpose of this study is to assess employees’ training practices and challenges conducted by Ethio-Djibouti Railway Share Company. The study employed a descriptive type of research design. Primary data collected through structured questionnaire and Semi-structured interview. A total of 112 questionnaires were distributed to employees from Head office and Lebu station are selected by using a stratified sampling technique. From the total distributed, 101(90.2%) questionnaires were properly filled and returned. Semi-structured interview was also used with sample from the management of the organization by using purposive sampling technique. After collecting the desired data, simple descriptive analysis such as frequency count, percentage, and mean are used to present and analyze using SPSS for primary data which is collected through questionnaires. According to the collected data, results of the study reveals, training need assessment is not clearly identified, weak participation of employees and lack of management follow up, training is not given frequently, lack of setting a measurable objective, gaps are seen in training design and implication, not formal training evaluation has been conducted, and communication gap with trainers. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended, the organization should assess, follow, evaluate, and carefully revise each training processes and practices to make the training practice more effective in the EDR.