CHALLENGES OF ACCESS TO TRAINING FUND AMONG CIVIL SERVANTS IN KENYA

The public sector plays the particularly important function of providing public goods and public services, and maintaining public order. Hence, public organizations should pay attention to human resources development. Without training and development, government agencies cannot maximize their use of human capital. With the rapid pace of globalization and technological change today, all organizations have to continually train their workforce to keep pace with their competition. The Kenyan government has been supporting the building of technical, managerial and leadership competencies of the employees in the public sector with the aim of enabling them to meet the demands of providing efficient, effective and hands-on services to citizens. This can be evidence by the launch of the Training Revolving Fund (TRF) in 2011/2012. However, in spite of these efforts, there have been deficiencies on work performance, a clear indicator of inadequate or complete lack of training amongst civil servants in Kenya. The general objective of the study was to establish the challenges of access to training fund among the civil servants in Kenya. Specifically the study sought to; establish how awareness of training fund details influences access to training fund among civil servants in Kenya, determine how bureaucracy in administration of training fund influences access to training fund among civil servants in Kenya, investigate how borrowing requirements influences access to training fund among civil servants in Kenya and establish how cost of loans influences access to training fund among civil servants in Kenya. This study adopted a descriptive research design. The population of the study was all the civil servants working in the government of Kenya. The study used a formula to calculate the sample since the population is greater than 10,000. This yielded a sample size of 265. The study used simple random sampling to select the respondents. The study used primary data which was collected using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was self administered using a drop and pick later method. A pilot study was conducted in order to establish the validity and reliability of data collection instruments. The pilot test was based on 5% of the sample population. The study used quantitative techniques in analyzing the data. This included descriptive and inferential statistics. Specifically, the descriptive statistics included; frequencies and percentages while the inferential statistics included a multiple linear regression. The organised data was interpreted on account of concurrence to objectives using assistance of computer packages especially Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to communicate the research findings . The analyzed data was presented in charts and tables. This enhanced easier interpretation and understanding of the research findings. Based on the findings the study concluded that awareness about training fund details has an effect on the access of training funds among civil servants in Kenya. Based on the findings the study also concluded that bureaucracy of administration of the training fund and borrowing requirements also influence the accessibility of training funds among civil servants in Kenya. Furthermore, based on the findings it was possible to conclude further that cost of acquiring training funds influenced accessibility to training funds. From the study findings, it is recommended that accessibility of training funds be made possible, available and affordable. Strategies include increasing awareness on training funds and reducing the number of requirements to access funds. In addition, reduce interest rates charged on funds received and ample repayment period. This would increase the number of civil servants accessing the funds. It is also recommended that time taken to process and disburse funds be addressed by the lending institutions so that civil servants are able to acquire funds for training. This would enhance work performance of the civil workers because of the acquisition of improved skills. Keywords : awareness of training, bureaucracy, borrowing requirements, cost of loans, access to training and civil servants