TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCE

The area of the problems inherent in training and development of a secretary seems to be an intensive ground for researchers as proved by the volume of literature written on it. Based on this, this chapter will endeavour to x-ray some of the researches that have been conducted on the subject.
For a smooth write up and clear understanding, the review had to be broken into the following headings: training and development, purpose of training and development, training process and identification of training needs, training goals, training methods , the trainers, evaluation of training, Effect of untrained secretary to an institution, and effort to eliminate problem of training and development.
2.1 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Training involves an expert working with learners to transfer to them certain areas of knowledge or skills to improve in their current jobs (McNamara, 2008). Development is a broad, ongoing multi-faceted set of activities (training activities among them) to bring someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance, often to perform some job or new role in the future (McNamara, 2008).
According to Asare-Bediako (2002) employees must be trained, and where possible developed to meet their own career needs and the need of the organization. Training is job or task-oriented. It aims at enabling individuals to perform better on the jobs they are currently doing. Development on the other hand, is career oriented rather than job-oriented. It aims at preparing people for higher responsibilities in the future (Asare-Bediako, 2002). Organizations must therefore have the responsibility to develop and implement training and development systems and programmes that best help them to achieve their objectives.
Noe et al. (2000) viewed training generally as a planed effort by a company to facilitate employees learning of the job-related competencies. These competencies include knowledge, skill, or behaviours that are critical for successful job performance. Whilst some human resource professionals consider training and development an after recruitment programme, Asare-Bediako (2002) believes that it must be incorporated into orientation programmes for newly recruited staff. According to him, the training and development (T&D) unit should explain to new employees what training and development means and what programmes and facilities are available to employees. At this stage, training and development explains internal training programmes available and how they could participate. T&D should emphasize the area of corporate culture. As the unit changed with facilitating change and maintaining the organization’s culture, training and development should reinforce the importance of training and development through continuous efforts such as frequent reminders, meeting, etc.
Writing on the typical reasons for employee T&D, McNamara (2008) stated that T&D can be initiated for a variety of reasons for an employee or group of employees including:
i. When a performance appraisal indicates performance improvement is needed
ii. To "benchmark" the status of improvement so far in a performance improvement effort
iii. As part of an overall professional development program
iv. As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible for a planned change in role in the organization
v. To "pilot", or test, the operation of a new performance management system
vi. To train about a specific topic
Whether training is necessary and, if so, what kind, are issues that need much more systematic and careful analysis. The return on investment in training for an organization will be minimal or nil if training is not based on effective needs identification. Training plans should be based upon job skills requirements and strategic initiatives of the company and the contents should be customized to the specific needs of the company. Leading companies have formed training departments, whose systems and approaches evolved along with their overall quality system the company’s needs. Smaller companies often use outside consultants.
Training can be thought of as helping people to learn:
For the present and future health of the organization
For personal fulfillment within the organization and
In helping the organization to learn, to cope better with its fastest changing environment (Leopold, Harris and Watson, 1999).
Explaining the reasons why organizations train, Leopold, Harris and Watson (1999) stated that training activities are seen as maintenance – maintaining systems processes and standards – but also reactive in that they respond to situations, often crisis, to solve problems - a fire-fight. Training and development can also be proactive, ensuring that the organization has the skills it needs to deal with change and therefore to adapt to change rather than a maintenance orientation.
Career development activities geared towards enhancing the competencies of employees in anticipation of progressing into higher management position (Asare-Bediako, 2002). It is therefore necessary that organisation’s draw up career development plan for employees that will help them acquire the relevant competencies to assume specific managerial positions in the long-run.
According to Asare-Bediako (2002), development activities are designed to reinforce strength, overcome limitations, provide relevant, new competencies, and broaden outlook. Such development activities usually include formal courses, acting assignment, attachments, job rotation, and delegation. According to him, ideally, at the time of employing staff or just after employment, a career development plan should be prepared for the employee. This should clearly indicate personal profile of the staff, the educational qualification and training, work experience with dates, past training and time, major strengths, major limitations, progression projections and timings and training and development plan and timing.



2.2 PURPOSE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
According to Quinn, Anderson and Finkelstein (1996), the goal of training is for employees to master the knowledge, skill, and behaviours emphasized in training programmes and to apply them to their day-to-day activities. They contend that recently it has been acknowledged that to gain competitive advantage, training has to involve more than just basic skills development. Reasons for emphasizing the growth and development of personnel include;
i. Creating a pool of readily available and adequate replacements for personnel who may leave or move up in the organization.
ii. Enhancing the company's ability to adopt and use advances in technology because of a sufficiently knowledgeable staff.
iii. Building a more efficient, effective and highly motivated team, which enhances the company's competitive position and improves employee morale.
iv. Ensuring adequate human resources for expansion into new programs.
v. Research has shown specific benefits that a small business receives from training and developing its workers, including:
vi. Increased productivity.
vii. Reduced employee turnover.
viii. Increased efficiency resulting in financial gains.
ix. Decreased need for supervision.
Contributing to the debate on the general benefits from employee training and development, McNamara (2008) stated numerous benefits namely:
i. Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees
ii. Increased employee motivation
iii. Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain
iv. Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods
v. Increased innovation in strategies and products
vi. Reduced employee turnover
vii. Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training and
viii. Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity training (McNamara, 2008).
Goldstein and Gilliam (1990) also outlined six reasons why companies believe that investments in training can help them gain a competitive advantage. These include:
i.   Increase employee knowledge
ii. Help ensure that employees have the basic skills to work with new technology
iii. Help employees understand how to work effectively in teams to contribute to service quality
iv. Ensure that the company’s culture emphasizes innovations, creativity and learning
v. Ensure employment security by providing new ways for employees to contribute to the company when their jobs change, their interests change, or their skills become obsolete
vi. Prepare employees to accept and work more effectively with each other and
vii. Prepare employees to accept and work more effectively with each other.
Employees frequently develop a greater sense of self-worth, dignity and well-being as they become more valuable to the firm and to society. Generally they will receive a greater share of the material gains that result from their increased productivity. These factors give them a sense of satisfaction through the achievement of personal and company goals.
The Training Process
The model below traces the steps necessary in the training process:
i. Organizational Objectives
ii. Needs Assessment
iii. Is There a Gap?
iv. Training Objectives
v. Select the Trainees
vi. Select the Training Methods and Mode
vii. Choose a Means of Evaluating
viii. Administer Training
ix. Evaluate the Training (Noe, 2002).
  A business should have a clearly defined strategy and set of objectives that direct and drive all the decisions made especially for training decisions. Firms that plan their training process are more successful than those that do not. Most business owners want to succeed, but do not engage in training designs that promise to improve their chances of success. Why? The five reasons most often identified are:
Time- Small businesses managers find that time demands do not allow them to train employees.
Getting started - Most small business managers have not practiced training employees. The training process is unfamiliar.
Broad expertise- Managers tend to have broad expertise rather than the specialized skills needed for training and development activities.
Lack of trust and openness- Many managers prefer to keep information to themselves. By doing so they keep information from subordinates and others that could be useful in the training and development process.
Skepticism as to the value of the training- Some small business owners believe the future cannot be predicted or controlled and their efforts, therefore, are best centred on current activities i.e., making money today (Noe, 2002).
A well-conceived training program can help your firm succeed. A program structured with the company's strategy and objectives in mind has a high probability of improving productivity and other goals that are set in the training mission.
For any business, formulating a training strategy requires addressing a series of questions.
Who are your customers? Why do they buy from you? Who are your competitors? How do they serve the market? What competitive advantages do they enjoy? What parts of the market have they ignored?
What strengths does the company have? What weaknesses?
What social trends are emerging that will affect the firm? (Noe, 2002).
The purpose of formulating a training strategy is to answer two relatively simple but vitally important questions:
(1) What is our business? and
(2) What should our business be? Armed with the answers to these questions and a clear vision of its mission, strategy and objectives, a company can identify its training needs.
2.3 IDENTIFYING TRAINING NEEDS
Training needs analysis seeks to answer the questions, who if any, needs training? And what training do they need? The questions may be very simple ones, but getting good answers to these questions constitute one of the most difficult steps in the total training process.
A training need exists when an individual lacks the knowledge or skills required for the execution of an assigned task satisfactorily. The purpose of a training needs identification exercise, therefore is to identify the gap between required and the actual competencies so as to determine the kinds of training that would help bridge the gap (Asare-Bediako, 2002).
Two major preconditions for training needs identification are organization and job analysis. Organisational analysis provides information on
i. Organisational vision
ii. Short and long term goals
iii. Future strategies
iv. Methods and technologies and
v. Present and future social, economic, political, and technological environment.
While organization analysis provide clues as to the type of training that individuals and groups in the organizations must be given today or in the future, job analysis on the other hand involves a careful study of jobs within an organization in further effort to define the specific content of training.
Observations (day to day), promotions, transfers, appraisals, accidents and quality control records remains the main sources by which organization’s identify training needs of individuals whilst new products/equipments, new standards, new policies, and operations trends are used to identify group training needs.
Training needs can be assessed by analyzing three major human resource areas: the organization as a whole, the job characteristics and the needs of the individuals. This analysis will provide answers to the following questions:
Where is training needed?
What specifically must an employee learn in order to be more productive?
Who needs to be trained?
Begin by assessing the current status of the company how it does what it does best and the abilities of your employees to do these tasks. This analysis will provide some benchmarks against which the effectiveness of a training program can be evaluated. Your firm should know where it wants to be in five years from its long-range strategic plan. What you need is a training program to take your firm from here to there. Secondly, consider whether the organization is financially committed to supporting the training efforts. If not, any attempt to develop a solid training program will fail.
Next, determine exactly where training is needed. It is foolish to implement a companywide training effort without concentrating resources where they are needed most. An internal audit will help point out areas that may benefit from training. Also, a skills inventory can help determine the skills possessed by the employees in general. This inventory will help the organization determine what skills are available now and what skills are needed for future development.
Also, in today's market-driven economy, you would be remiss not to ask your customers what they like about your business and what areas they think should be improved. In summary, the analysis should focus on the total organization and should tell you (1) where training is needed and (2) where it will work within the organization.
Once you have determined where training is needed, concentrate on the content of the program. Analyze the characteristics of the job based on its description, the written narrative of what the employee actually does. Training based on job descriptions should go into detail about how the job is performed on a task-by-task basis. Actually doing the job will enable you to get a better feel for what is done. Individual employees can be evaluated by comparing their current skill levels or performance to the organization's performance standards or anticipated needs. Any discrepancies between actual and anticipated skill levels identify a training need.
Selection of Trainees
Once you have decided what training is necessary and where it is needed, the next decision is who should be trained? For a most businesses, this question is crucial. Training an employee is expensive, especially when he or she leaves your firm for a better job. It is therefore important to carefully select who will be trained. Training programs should be designed to consider the ability of the employee to learn the material and to use it effectively, and to make the most efficient use of resources possible. It is also important that employees be motivated by the training experience. Employee failure in the program is not only damaging to the employee but a waste of money as well. Selecting the right trainees is important to the success of the program.
Training Goals: The goals of the training program should relate directly to the needs determined by the assessment process outlined above. Course objectives should clearly state what behavior or skill will be changed as a result of the training and should relate to the mission and strategic plan of the company. Goals should include milestones to help take the employee from where he or she is today to where the firm wants him or her in the future .Setting goals helps to evaluate the training program and also to motivate employees. Allowing employees to participate in setting goals increases the probability of success.
Therefore; Success and failure of an organization depends of the effectiveness of its human resources or workforce in their work. Organizations objectives, skills, satisfaction and enthusiasm of the employees influences the effectiveness of manpower development especially secretaries. Noe (2002), the main objectives of training programmes is the expose participants to the ideas and tools that would enable them attain better perception of the development problems of the organization and how to tackle the problems. In another development, Light (1981) point out that the sole objectives of all industrial training programmes is to prepare people to do efficiently in their own particular task or to do another equally well.
Based on this, it means that the objective of training is specifically to bridge the gap between existing performance ability and desired performance. Training is a continuous process and entails much expenditure, it is equally necessary that a training programme and policy should be prepared with care.
2.4 TRAINING METHODS
There are two broad types of training available to businesses: on-the-job and off-the-job techniques. Individual circumstances and the "who,""what" and "why" of your training program determine which method to use, Frank Yawson (2009).
Training is delivered to employees while they perform their regular jobs. In this way, they do not lose time while they are learning. After a plan is developed for what should be taught, employees should be informed of the details. A timetable should be established with periodic evaluations to inform employees about their progress. On-the-job techniques include orientations, job instruction training, apprenticeships, internships and assistantships, job rotation and coaching.
Off-the-job techniques include lectures, special study, films, television conferences or discussions, case studies, role playing, simulation, programmed instruction and laboratory training. Most of these techniques can be used by small businesses although, some may be too costly
Some companies use verbal presentations while others have written presentations. Many small businesses convey these topics in one-on-one orientations. No matter what method is used, it is important that the newcomer understand his or her new place of employment.
Lectures present training material verbally and are used when the goal is to present a great deal of material to many people. It is more cost effective to lecture to a group than to train people individually. Lecturing is one-way communication and as such may not be the most effective way to train. Also, it is hard to ensure that the entire audience understands a topic on the same level; by targeting the average attendee you may under train some and lose others. Despite these drawbacks, lecturing is the most cost-effective way of reaching large audiences.
Role playing and simulation are training techniques that attempt to bring realistic decision making situations to the trainee. Likely problems and alternative solutions are presented for discussion. The adage there is no better trainer than experience is exemplified with this type of training. Experienced employees can describe real world experiences, and can help in and learn from developing the solutions to these simulations. This method is cost effective and is used in marketing and management training.
Audiovisual methods such as television, videotapes and films are the most effective means of providing real world conditions and situations in a short time. One advantage is that the presentation is the same no matter how many times it's played. This is not true with lectures, which can change as the speaker is changed or can be influenced by outside constraints. The major flaw with the audiovisual method is that it does not allow for questions and interactions with the speaker, nor does it allow for changes in the presentation for different audiences.
Job rotation involves moving an employee through a series of jobs so he or she can get a good feel for the tasks that are associated with different jobs. It is usually used in training for supervisory positions. The employee learns a little about everything. This is a good strategy for small businesses because of the many jobs an employee may be asked to do.
Apprenticeships develop employees who can do many different tasks. They usually involve several related groups of skills that allow the apprentice to practice a particular trade, and they take place over a long period of time in which the apprentice works for, and with, the senior skilled worker. Apprenticeships are especially appropriate for jobs requiring production skills. Internships and assistantships are usually a combination of classroom and on-the-job training. They are often used to train prospective managers or marketing personnel.
Programmed learning, computer-aided instruction and interactive video all have one thing in common: they allow the trainee to learn at his or her own pace. Also, they allow material already learned to be bypassed in favor of material with which a trainee is having difficulty. After the introductory period, the instructor need not be present, and the trainee can learn as his or her time allows. These methods sound good, but may be beyond the resources of some small businesses.
Laboratory training is conducted for groups by skilled trainers. It usually is conducted at a neutral site and is used by upper- and middle management trainees to develop a spirit of teamwork and an increased ability to deal with management and peers. It can be costly and usually is offered by larger small businesses.
For a comprehensive training programme, McNamara (2008) suggested some topical issues namely:
1. Communications: The increasing diversity of today's workforce brings a wide variety of languages and customs.
2. Computer skills: Computer skills are becoming a necessity for conducting administrative and office tasks.
3. Customer service: Increased competition in today's global marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers.
4. Diversity: Diversity training usually includes explanation about how people have different perspectives and views, and includes techniques to value diversity
5. Ethics: Today's society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility. Also, today's diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to the workplace.
6. Human relations: The increased stresses of today's workplace can include misunderstandings and conflict. Training can people to get along in the workplace.
7. Quality initiatives: Initiatives such as Total Quality Management, Quality Circles, benchmarking, etc., require basic training about quality concepts, guidelines and standards for quality, etc.
8. Safety: Safety training is critical where working with heavy equipment, hazardous chemicals, repetitive activities, etc., but can also be useful with practical advice for avoiding assaults, etc.
9. Sexual harassment: Sexual harassment training usually includes careful description of the organization's policies about sexual harassment, especially about what are inappropriate behaviours (McNamara, 2008).
Trainers
According to Frank Yawson (2009).Who actually conducts the training depends on the type of training needed and who will be receiving it. On-the-job training is conducted mostly by supervisors; off-the-job training, by either in-house personnel or outside instructors. In-house training is the daily responsibility of supervisors and employees. Supervisors are ultimately responsible for the productivity and, therefore, the training of their subordinates. These supervisors should be taught the techniques of good training. They must be aware of the knowledge and skills necessary to make a productive employee. Trainers should be taught to establish goals and objectives for their training and to determine how these objectives can be used to influence the productivity of their departments. They also must be aware of how adults learn and how best to communicate with adults. Small businesses need to develop their supervisors' training capabilities by sending them to courses on training methods. The investment will pay off in increased productivity.
There are several ways to select training personnel for off-the-job training programs. Many small businesses use in-house personnel to develop formal training programs to be delivered to employees off line from their normal work activities, during company meetings or individually at prearranged training sessions.
There are many outside training sources, including consultants, technical and vocational schools, continuing education programs, chambers of commerce and economic development groups. Selecting an outside source for training has advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that these organizations are well versed in training techniques, which is often not the case with in-house personnel.
The disadvantage of using outside training specialists is their limited knowledge of the company's product or service and customer needs. These trainers have a more general knowledge of customer satisfaction and needs. In many cases, the outside trainer can develop this knowledge quickly by immersing himself or herself in the company prior to training the employees. Another disadvantage of using outside trainers is the relatively high cost compared to in-house training, although the higher cost may be offset by the increased effectiveness of the training. Whoever is selected to conduct the training, either outside or in-house trainers, it is important that the company's goals and values be carefully explained
Training Administration
Frank Yawson (2009). Also stated that: Having planned the training program properly, you must now administer the training to the selected employees. It is important to follow through to make sure the goals are being met. Questions to consider before training begins include: location, facilities, accessibility, comfort, equipment and timing. A careful attention to these operational details will contribute to the success of the training program.
An effective training program administration should follow these steps:
i. Define the organizational objectives.
ii. Determine the needs of the training program.
iii. Define training goals.
iv. Develop training methods.
v. Decide whom to train.
vi. Decide who should do the training.
vii. Administer the training.
viii. Evaluate the training program.
Following these steps will help an administrator develop an effective training program to ensure that the firm keeps qualified employees who are productive, happy workers. This will contribute positively to the bottom line.
Effects of Untrained Secretaries in an Institution
Mayo, A. (2001), sees computer illiteracy as inability to understand the workings of a computer machine. It involves its manipulation by the novice secretary coming across the computer for the first time.
Mc Namara, Carter, (2008), agreed that computer illiteracy has to do with the inability of the modern secretary to make use of a computer machine as an innovation in secretarial administration.
From the foregoing, it does not mean that the modern secretary has no education. The education the modern secretary has, does not include computer education.
Neo R. (2002) opined that the absence of computer education on the part of a modern secretary constitutes illiteracy and a handicap to his / her secretarial duties in modern times. For a modern secretary to function effectively in secretarial administration there must be Computer literacy.
Katou, A.A & Budhwar. P.S (2006) said that without question, computer has changed our lives, especially the way we do office work. The arrival of the electronic age is permanently changing many office jobs. The implications of Chippinger statement are that office work in modern times requires the absence of computer illiteracy on the modern secretaries.
The implication is that any secretary, who is computer illiterate, may have difficulty in coping with his office work and as such a liability to the office.
Neo R.A, Hollenbeck .J.R. Gerhart, B .and Wrighy P,(2000), postulated that using computers, speeds operation reduces mistakes in circulations and give companies efficient cost-effective analysis, that would be nearly impossible with manual operations. Computer illiteracy on the part of any modern secretary becomes a problem to achieving cost-effectiveness and efficiency in company operations.
Manual operations no long fit into any modern office work, resulting in frustration, stagnation on the part of the secretary lacking computer education.
Ostroff C & Bowen, D.E (2004). Pointed out that the use of computer for decision is increasing. According to him, managers and executives now make use of the computer for budget schedule and general planning. The secretary, who is computer illiterate, will find it difficult to analyze and interpret data, and will be a liability to the manager or executive who uses the sophisticated process available for making projections and decision.
It should be noted that lack of computer knowledge in a modern secretary will delay the processing of documents that need to be revised and no improvement in documents and an increase in the time needed to produce the finished documents.
Evan, J.R & Lindsay. W.M. (1999) stated that with the lack of computer literacy secretary cannot input and store the variables to be merged and the computer equipment cannot produce hundreds of letters, while the secretary is doing something else. The implication is that the secretary who has computer literacy will achieve this fact without much difficulty.
Ostroff C& Bowen .D.E. (2004) in his own opinion stated that the compute equipment has automatic features which enables the secretary to set up statistical data in formal reports with ease.
A secretary who lacks computer education may not find it easy with manual operations. Manual operation in modern office work is no longer acceptable to modern managers and executive of business.
Thus, secretaries have become more of an information source in the office due to the computer literacy. For example, instead of just taking minutes of meeting, secretaries use information aid inputs. As a result, they can be involved in everything from purchasing decisions, to company task forces and committees.
So, the implication is that secretary who is computer illiterate may have difficulty in coping with his / her office work and as such, a liability to the of Evaluation of Training
Training should be evaluated several times during the process. Determine these milestones when you develop the training. Employees should be evaluated by comparing their newly acquired skills with the skills defined by the goals of the training program. Any discrepancies should be noted and adjustments made to the training program to enable it to meet specified goals. Many training programs fall short of their expectations simply because the administrator failed to evaluate its progress until it was too late. Timely evaluation will prevent the training from straying from its goals.
Ideally, training should not be one time activity. Continual reinforcement of lessons learnt in training program is essential. Many companies send employees to courses, but then allow the knowledge to slip away. New knowledge can be reinforced in several ways. According to Evans and Lindsay (1999) Motorola uses on the job coaching to reinforce training; Ritz-Carlton has follow-up sessions to monitor instructional effectiveness. Also companies need an approach for evaluating training effectiveness. Ritz-Carlton requires employees to pass written and skill demonstration tests.
Other companies use on-the-job evaluation or tests in simulated work environments. Many measure behaviour and attitude changes. However, the true test of training effectiveness is results. By establishing a linkage between training and results, companies can show the impact on customer satisfaction and also identify gaps in training.
Efforts to Eliminate the Problems
Many tertiary institutions and organization in Nigeria today are making genuine efforts to eliminate the problem inherent in the training of a modern secretary today.
The Institute of Management of Technology, Enugu, for instance most of the secretaries in their employment have been given the opportunity by management to be trained by the institute. Much of the financial burden involved in the training, have been taken over by the institute. This is commendable efforts in eliminating the problem of training modern secretaries.
Polytechnics in Nigeria through the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) have been emphasizing technological education in the training of manpower for the country. In this direction, most institutions including Tai Solarin University of education have various programmes for the training of modern secretaries. Such programmes include, secretarial administration, computer science programme.
Also, the federal and various state governments have been emphasizing the need for computer education in every sector of the economy. Thus no doubt is an effort towards encouraging the secretary to see the need for updating knowledge in secretarial administration. Secretaries cannot function effectively without exposure to these training.
Computer houses are available in most urban towns where secretaries can register and altered lectures for upgrading their knowledge. Some of the house charge fees that could be affordable to any person interested. This is an effort in eliminating such problem inherent in Training and development of a secretary 
2.5  SUMMARY OF LITERATURE REVIEW
Organizations in human societies are established with a view to achieving specific and set goals which ultimately lead to the growth, development and general well-being of members of the organization on one hand and the society at large. Organizations consequently evolve either as private or public organizations depending on the thrust of their board objectives. Many factors are considered critical in the realization of organizational goals and objectives. These factors are categorized broadly as ‘human and material components’ of an organization. Under human component is funding the manpower resources, which includes the secretary.
Information which is also cardinal to the effectiveness of an organization rivets around the secretary whose duty includes in the opinion of Neo (2002). The acquisition of the basic secretarial skills of typing and shorthand plus enough knowledge and practical experience in office work to be able to cope with filing, simple office machine and reception duties. For the achievement of the above requisites, he needs to undergo training and development not just before assuming office but also intermittently to keep pace with ever changing science and technology. Ostroff .C & Bowen D.E (2004) observed that training is the overall process where individual behaviours is modified to conform to a predefined and specific pattern which implies that training provides individuals with new sets of attitude that are consistent with some stated goals.
Training therefore bridges the gap between existing performance ability and desired performance. Prior to the advent of depression in most world economics, training and development especially that of secretarial staff was regularly organized to the benefit of recipients but since the period of depression, the picture has changed drastically with noticeable ants in social spindling which has adversely affected the availability of funds for training and development programmes. Besides the death of funds there is also the problem of lack of equipment; political instability coupled with professional inequality. The myriad’s of problems is epitomized in the inability of employers to adequately reward the secretaries through enviable and attractive remunerations, prompt promotions and other forms of enhancement.