Manpower training constitutes one of the most dynamics and corner stone of human resource management. It remains both complex and multi-dimensional. Remaining human focused and human centric, training, primarily and essentially, helps in the growth and advancement of the depth, breadth and bandwidth of the knowledge of the individual. When appropriately deployed in any organization, training helps to improve the operational efficiency and quality of services rendered by the said organization. Organisations use the mechanism of training, for facilitating employees learning about organizational objectives or goals Looking at the entire context, it can be, observed that manpower training includes and involves a well-defined process, based on large number of activities, performed by multiplicity of actors involving employers, employees, organization, institutions and trainers. The activities and objectives of training invariably involve and include skilling, knowledge sharing, capacity building, human development, behavioral change, operational efficiency, promoting effectiveness, promoting understanding, analyzing and problem solving, advancement, better placement, efficient execution of functions etc. Undergoing training should not be seen as a privilege but as the basic right of every employee right from the day of employment. Creating a transparent, objective and transparent criteria of evaluating the impact of training is another vital aspect of effective manpower training and development. Capacity building of training institutes having support of quality and trained manpower and professionally managing the training institutes, shall invariably and essentially form the corner stone of manpower training.

1. Approaching Training and Skilling Human Resource in Public Sector
Jit Kumar Gupta
Former Director, College of Architecture, I.E.T, Bhaddal; #344, Sector 40-A, Chandigarh; jit.kumar1944@gmail.com
Abstract
Manpower training constitutes one of the most dynamics and corner stone of human resource management. It remains both complex
and multi-dimensional. Remaining human focused and human centric, training, primarily and essentially, helps in the growth and
advancement of the depth, breadth and bandwidth of the knowledge of the individual. When appropriately deployed in any
organization, training helps to improve the operational efficiency and quality of services rendered by the said organization.
Organisations use the mechanism of training, for facilitating employees learning about organizational objectives or goals
Looking at the entire context, it can be, observed that manpower training includes and involves a well-defined process, based on large
number of activities, performed by multiplicity of actors involving employers, employees, organization, institutions and trainers. The
activities and objectives of training invariably involve and include skilling, knowledge sharing, capacity building, human development,
behavioral change, operational efficiency, promoting effectiveness, promoting understanding, analyzing and problem solving,
advancement, better placement, efficient execution of functions etc.
Undergoing training should not be seen as a privilege but as the basic right of every employee right from the day of employment.
Creating a transparent, objective and transparent criteria of evaluating the impact of training is another vital aspect of effective
manpower training and development. Capacity building of training institutes having support of quality and trained manpower and
professionally managing the training institutes, shall invariably and essentially form the corner stone of manpower training.
Key words; Skilling, capacity building, empowering, efficiency, productivity
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Globally, industrial and technological advancement
of nations, has largely been human-supported and
human-led. Despite limited availability of natural
resources, countries like Japan, Korea, Germany, have
showcased and demonstrated that qualitative growth
and development of nations can be made a distinct
reality, purely based on the availability, efficacy,
efficiency and productivity of highly developed
manpower resource. In the words of Onah (2003:1),
what sets most successful organisations/nations apart is,
how to manage its human resources and make it skilled
to stay relevant, rational, effective and efficient.
Accordingly skilled, trained and well-developed
manpower remains critical, valuable and essential
ingredient for promoting efficiency and effectiveness of
any organisation.
1.2 Bob Nelson, author of 1,001 Ways to Engage
Employees, reports that, ‘learning and development are
considered and valued as two critical factors of
employee’s engagement’. Quality and level of human
performance, productivity, skilling, operational
efficiency and problem solving capacity/capability
varies from individual to individual. However, these
performance indicators have close relationship with the
training and skilling to which human beings are
subjected/exposed from time to time. Skilling and
training are known for its distinct advantages in
creating capacity and capability besides empowering
human beings in the art and science of rendering quality
services and rational decision making, while performing
duties and discharging responsibilities in the public
domain. Training is valued globally for its positivity in
furthering the cause/objectives; achieving defined
vision and laid down goals of any organization, with
which one is connected. Accordingly, training is valued
for skilling manpower, on its roll, for making value
addition and increasing productivity of the organization
being served. Training is also embedded with the
distinct advantage of achieving the objectives of
imparting desired knowledge, creating appropriate
skills/abilities and commitment among the employees.
It is also known to go a long way in improving the
operational efficiency of the manpower deployed in
public services, making it more focused and
meaningful. Quality training and skilling of manpower
is considered central to achieve organizational goal and
rendering quality services to the people and
communities. Appropriate training also remains critical
for framing rational public policies and defining
contours of schemes for community welfare besides
implementing various government-led programs,
missions and yojnas. Despite the fact that training holds
distinct advantages in terms of making manpower
qualitative, still many organisations /parastatal agencies
accord low priority to manpower training by neglecting,
diluting , haphazardly implementing and allocating
insufficient resources.
1.3 Numerous studies made globally by academicians,
researchers, and institutions, involving public, private,
parastatal and corporate sectors, have concluded that
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2. role, relevance, criticality and importance of manpower
training in any organisation cannot be over-emphasized.
In addition to skilling, training also makes the existing
manpower more productive, responsive and efficient in
discharging its duties and developing capacity to tackle
new problems/challenges emerging from changes in
science & technology and new work culture being
inducted in the organisations. In addition, training also
prepares newly inducted employee in the organisation
for the task/duties to be performed and services they are
expected to render in the course of their employment in
the organisation. It also helps in improving morale,
incetivising individuals, increasing productivity and
performance besides minimising conflicts between
organisation/employee, leading to enhanced staff
retention. Making training more relevant, rational,
qualitative, productive, meaningful and focused, would
invariably involve systematic planning; execution and
evaluation of the intent, content and the scope of the
training to be imparted. For rational operation, growth
and development of any organization, imparting quality
training should be given priority and made integral part
of career growth plan of employees. Adequate care
needs to be taken while defining the periodicity and
time, when training will be needed and imparted.
2.0 Training and Development
2.1 Manpower training and development of employees
remain integrated and intertwined in objectives and
outcomes. However, few scholars and researchers have
tried to distinguish and put them into two different and
distinct compartments. Holistically looking,
considering, evaluating and analysing both manpower
training and development, it can be visualized and
concluded that manpower development remains
embedded and forms integral and essential part of
manpower training. Both can occur simultaneously,
being complementary and supplementary in nature and
produce the same impact in terms of; making
improvement in effectiveness and efficiency of the
manpower being trained. Both training and
development are purposefully geared towards
improving skills and performance; involving moulding
or remoulding of employee’s characteristics. While,
training involves imparting knowledge and skilling the
manpower on immediate basis, the development
remains a gradual and long-term process, involving
growth and development of the employee in the
organisational ladder to higher levels of management
and operations.
3.0 Need for Training
3.1 Role and importance of manpower training has been
recognized as integral part of the human resource
management besides skilling and empowering
manpower deployed in any organisation. With the
enlargement and widening of the operational domain of
the governments at three levels of governance and
changing dimensions/contours of governance, led by
democratization and people participation, large
manpower of various hues and capabilities, has been
inducted at different levels of governance by the
parastatal agencies, for managing their operations and
discharging their duties and services to the
communities, effectively and efficiently. With fast
changing technologies and people becoming aware of
their rights, the onus of discharging duties by employees
has assumed importance. Launch of number of
government-led missions, yojnas, schemes and
programs, focusing on community empowerment has
also led to need of creating larger interface between
community and parastatal agencies, calling for better
performance and improving operational efficiency on
the part of government functionaries. It also calls for
skilling the existing manpower in the domain of
technology, led by Artificial Intelligence, IT & ITeS, for
use in day- to- day operations. Necessity and urgency of
time bound delivery of quality services, in a cost-
effective manner, calls for imparting necessary skill and
knowledge in the use of new and emerging
technologies, for employees to stay relevant and
efficient. Since the operational efficiency of any
government and quality of governance depends upon
the manpower put in place, accordingly, it becomes
important that the workforce deployed in the
government offices remain qualitative and efficient to
achieve the defined goals of good governance. Training
needs of the manpower deployed in the public sector,
primarily and essentially, are the outcome of
overcoming the shortfall in employee performance and
promoting potential performers, which can be ensured
by appropriate training (Cole, 2002:68). Training has
also been valued as one of the best options available for
overcoming deficiencies in human performance at
work.
3.2 Training needs, within organisation, differ
according to groups and individuals involved in
different operations. The training needs of people in
organisations tend to falls mainly into two major groups,
which remain inter-connected and mutually supportive.
First, there is the need to provide job specific training,
especially, for new employees and sometimes for the
present employee who are deficient in job performance.
Second, there is the need to provide the kind of training
that will contribute to the long-run effectiveness and
efficiency of the individuals deployed. Considering the
growing context of ever widening framework of
operation and development agenda defined by the
political parties in power and mechanism of
governance, it is felt that there is an urgent need to make
people skilled and aware of their changing roles and
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3. duties, by imparting appropriate level of training,
Considering the role and importance of training in
promoting and ensuring people-centric governance,
National Training Policy was issued in April 1996, by
the Government of India, through a set of operational
guidelines for the development of the human resources
deployed in the public sector.
3.3 During last more than seven decades when India, as
an independent nation, accepting to be republic and
governed by a well-defined written constitution,
Government of India and Indian states have launched
numerous policies, programs and schemes for
development involving, Five-Year Plans; development
program; subject specific schemes for empowering the
economically poor/vulnerable sections of the society,
promoting industrialization, generating employment,
promoting physical, social and economic growth and
development, both at central and state levels. With India
accepting liberalization and globalization in the year
1991, as the agenda for growth and development, to
become integral part of global economy and global net-
working, the operational domain of government
activities, have widened many-folds in both urban and
rural India.
3.4 Empowering by decentralization and
democratization of urban local bodies and institutions of
local governance in Rural India, making them
constitutional entities of governance; through the
enactment, adoption and application of 73rd and 74th
Amendments to the Constitution in 1992, has led to
changing the culture, operation, power and authority
vested in these institutions. This has necessitated the
skilling and training of the large manpower deployed
in the operation and management of these institutions
to operate and function as knowledge partner in taking
forward the agenda of good governance at local level.
These, along with other changes necessitated by rapid
economic growth, devolution of funds, functions to the
Panchayats and Municipalities, enhanced transparency
through the right to information, globalization, issues
related to climate change, global warming, ensuring
employment, removing poverty, promoting sustainable
development, providing housing for all, making India
clean, green, free from manual-based sullage disposal,
ensuring potable water to all etc., have cumulatively, led
tocreation of a complexand challenging environment in
which the civil service is required to operate and
function at a time when there are increasingexpectations
of its performance andabilityto respond moreefficiently
and effectively to the needs of the common citizens of
both rural and urban India.
3.5 Systematic training, in the past, has remained
largely confined and focused only on the higher civil
services involving central services, with large number
of Group B and C employees remaining marginalized,
receiving only sporadic training. Considering the broad
contours of fast changing operational domain of state
agencies, there exists valid reasons to impart
appropriate level of skilling and training of entire
manpower deployed at various levels in the public
sector, in the art and science of ensuring good,
transparent and objective management of public affairs
so as to promote public good and larger public interest.
3.6 With Human Resource Management functions
undergoing significant changes and assuming
importance, state and parastatal agencies/organisations,
are fast recognizing and attaching tremendous
importance to the management , development, skilling
and empowering the manpower deployed . In this
context training of the manpower deployed in the
domain of public services assumes importance for the
reasons that:
 Individual in an organisation remains the key
resource and shouldnot be simply looked upon as a
cost but an asset and accordingly needs to be skilled
and trained for achieving the objective of good and
efficient governance,
 Re-orienting the existing system of personnel
administration, which continues to focus merely on
the rules and procedures governing the recruitment,
retention and career development of the civil
service, must include, involve and improve the
quality and performance of the manpower inducted.
 Empowerment of the government officials should
not merely remain confined only to senior level
functionaries, but its scope and contours must be
expanded, widened and enlarged to bring under its
umbrella the entire manpower deployed in the public
sector.
 With the creation of the third tier of Government, the
training of functionaries in the Panchayat and
Municipal bodies remain critical and vital, for
effective and efficient functioning and operation of
these local level institutions.
 Transforming civil services, would invariably need
putting in place a strategic human resource
managementsystem, duly supported by training and
skilling, which would look at the individual as a vital
resource to be valued, motivated, developed and
enabled to achieve the mission and objectives
defined and laid down by the parastatal agencies.
4.0 Training Objectives
4.1 Lack of training has been recognized as one of the
prime/ basic reason of poor, in-appropriate and
below-par performance of any organization, which
is showcased by numerous symptoms. Nwachucku
(1988:121) defines existence of such symptoms
among employees in terms of; lack of interest;
developing negative attitude; achieving low
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4. productivity; tardiness; excessive absenteeism;
excessive complaints; low-quality output; in-
subordination etc. Modifying, rationalising and
redefining such behavioural problems, invariably
calls for training employees, to help and support
them to overcome existing human behavioral
problems to make them more responsive and
supportive of organizational goals and objectives.
It is essential to match individual competencies
with the jobs they have to doand bridge competency
gaps for current and future roles through training
and skilling. However, productivity enhancement
training which remains strategic in nature, is
primarily and essentially designed to obtain
optimum utilization of available human resources,
for increasing, rather than merely maintaining
productivity. Training manpower, deployed in
serving any organization, on regular and continued
basis, remains pre-requisite and essential for such
organizations/institutions to grow, prosper, remain
relevant and become operationally efficient.
Effective and focused training, relevant to work
performed and improving culture of the employees,
creates a win-win situation for organization,
employer, employee, humanity and community.
4.2 Imparting appropriate training to manpower
deployed in any organisation, should remain
centric and must be focused for achieving the
following objectives;
 Increasing productivity, improving morale,
ensuring better coordination, and promoting good
governance.
 Improving knowledge, skill and change in attitude,
for ensuring efficiency and effectiveness at work
 Promoting impartiality, efficiency and
responsiveness to the needs of the citizens and
communities.
 Developing work ethics, commitment to work and
empathy for the vulnerable sections of the society
and community
 Imparting requisite knowledge, skills and attitude
to perform the vested duties and responsibilities,
effectively and efficiently.
 Improving productivity and operational efficiency
of individual/organisation
 Creating a sense of commitment, dedication and
sincerity for the organisation
 Making manpower aware and more knowledgeable
about the goals and functions of the organisations
and the manner to achieve them
 Making organisations more effective and efficient
 Improving credibility of the
organisation/institution
 Lowering down cost of rendering/delivery of
services and promoting operational efficiency for
making institutions more cost-effective.
 Increasing sincerity, commitment, loyalty of the
manpower deployed to the organization.
 Minimizing employees movement outside
organization- reducing rate of manpower attrition
 Empowering employees to understand, analyse and
redefine the work handled for achieving operational
efficiency and promoting economy
 Improving the organizational productivity and
enlarging its bottom-line
 Adding value to the society and community
 Promoting co-operation and collaboration between
organisation and community to frame and
implement development schemes more effectively,
efficiently and economically
 Promoting public and community good.
 Exposing employees to the new innovations and
culture in the domain of organizational operation
and functioning
 Disseminating good practices in the human
behavior, corporate operations, problem solving,
dealing with human beings and looking at the
climate change and sustainability.
5.0 Advantages of Training
5.1 As already stated, training has universal value and
positivity in promoting the interest and benefiting all the
stakeholders in any organization, and creates a win-win
situation for employer, employee, organization,
communities and society. It is for these reasons that
training is now being valued by various organizations,
both public, private and parastatal, as a positive
investment and potent instrument, for promoting
efficiency and empowering stakeholders besides
achieving the aims, objectives, activities and operations
of organisations, both locally and globally. There exist
several reasons for employers to initiate training
programs for their employees. Distinct and numerous
advantages of manpower training can be enumerated in
terms of;
 Skilling and Imparting Knowledge; Imparting
relevant training invariably helps in making
recipient more knowledgeable and skilled in the
domain of problem solving and meeting challenges
posed by fast changing contours of organizational
operations besides improving abilities and building
confidence of employees in their abilities. Good
induction training, imparted while joining new
organisations, is known to help employees connect
closely with organization through better
understanding and appreciation of organization’s
ethics, values, policies, visions and missions.
 Improving Productivity and Efficiency;
Improving human performance besides making
people work with higher efficiency and
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5. effectiveness, are known for its distinct advantages
and positive outcomes, embedded in the process of
training the bottom line and operational efficiency
of the organization and industries. Training
invariably helps employees learn about work ethics,
work culture and value of human relations.
 Making Value Addition; Training and
development programs focusing on enrolled
manpower remain critical for enhancing employee’s
performance. In fact, a 2019 report published in The
International Journal of Business and Management
Research indicates that 90% of employees surveyed
agreed or strongly agreed that training and
development programs improved their job
performance.
 Improving Manpower Quality; Training
invariably helps workforce to make them more
qualitative through dedicated programs focusing on
specific areas of technology, innovations and
learning good practices.
 Positioning for Higher Responsibilities; Training
not only helps in making employees more efficient
but also empowers them in preparing and assuming
higher roles and responsibilities within organization.
Training for leadership role and skill, invariably
helps employee to do better in the new position of
higher responsibility and institutional management.
 Valuing Employees; Training programs helps
employees feel they are being valued, appreciated
and considered productive by the organization and
helps in promoting commitment to the organization,
to take it forward, in search of achieving mandated
and defined goals. Learning new skills and abilities,
through training, improves morale/workplace
capabilities of the employees, enabling them to
approach their role, duties and responsibilities with
more self-confidence
 Evaluating Efficacy of New Management
Systems; Besides empowering employees in the
domain of improving capacity and capability,
manpower training can also be effectively leveraged
to test the efficacy and efficiency of any new
management system, which organisations would
like to put in place for improving the skill and
bridging the gap between expectation and
performance of its workforce. Training helps in
evaluating the new system, understand its imitation
and implications besides making necessary
improvements/modifications, before making it
universally applicable within the organization.
 Bridging Gap between Planning and
Implementation; Imparting training is known to
enable and help employees to achieve set targets. In
the public sector, appropriate training helps in
achieving targets defined under various plans and
schemes evolved for communities through effective
implementation.
 Preventing Obsolescence;. Training enables the
organization to overcome the problem of
obsolescence, which generally plague the
organisation/institutions which do not value training
its manpower.
 Building Capacity; Training create capacity to
understand and appreciate the; nature of work;
methods and approach to be used while working;
technologies involved; prevailing work culture;
work ethics; reporting hierarchy, for smooth
adjustment within the organization.
 Adopting Technology; Technologies are known to
revolutionize the entire work related to; developing
computer skills/ITes; manpower management;
accounting; maintaining service record; creating
data base; accessing information; recording
movement of office files; inter and intra-
departmental communication etc.
 Bringing Standardisation; Training helps in
embedding a culture of standardizing the work
within institutions/ organisations to make them cost-
effective and more productive.
 Creating Leadership; Training is known to help in
building second line of leadership within the
organisation, by identifying talent and developing
the potential of the available/identified manpower
for manning the higher level job. It helps in growth
of the organisation, because new leadership is
already aware of the work culture of organisation
and there is no disruption in its work/operation.
 Adapting to Remote Work; Safety precautions
made applicable during COVID-19 pandemic
moved majority of employees to work from home
instead of previously working on-site. Training
helped employees to adopt to new culture of
working on-line by making employees learn new
processes and use of computers in the day-to day
working.
 Attracting and Retaining Talent’; Training and
development program, which address and focuses
on empowering individuals’ strengths and values,
have proved its positivity and potential, in making
organization more attractive and help in attracting
and retaining talented manpower within the
organisation.
 Enhancing Reputation; Employees, taking part in
staff training and development, have often been
observed to carry a feel good factor about their
employers; known to perform their jobs well and
enhance the organisational reputation among
stakeholders.
6.0 Issues in Manpower Training
6.1 Despite distinct advantages of making manpower
qualitative and, rendering of services more effectively
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6. and efficiently, role and importance of manpower
training remains marginalized and diluted in the
parlance of public sector. Most of the deficiencies/gaps
existing in the delivery of service and poor performance
on the part of civil services, can be attributed to
lack/absence of availability of adequate opportunities of
training the manpower deployed in the public services.
6.2 Considering the entire gamut/context of
management of the manpower deployed in public
sector, following roadblocks are known to hamper the
training, skilling and empowering said manpower:
 Lack of appropriate training policy framework at
State level; Root cause of inadequate/poor training
of the manpower deployed in the public sector, can
be, primarily and essentially, attributed to
lack/absence of a well-defined policy in the state to
train its manpower, which is made to run on ad-
hoc/subjective manner by various line departments.
 Low Priority to manpower training; Manpower
training finds no place in the government policies
and programs and has been given low priority ,
despite the fact manpower resource remains the
major determinant, in the success/failure of good
governance and effective implementation of
government-led programs.
 Multiplicity of training institutions; Poor quality of
trained manpower can also be considered as the
outcome of multiplicity of training institutes
operating in the state, having limited manpower and
resources to impart quality training and skilling. In
certain cases, despite having good infrastructures,
availability of manpower to be trained remains
conspicuous by its absence, leading to wastage of
precious available resources.
 Absence of dedicated funds earmarked for
training; Training of public sector manpower
remains a causality in the absence of state policy and
consequently allocation of appropriate resources in
the state budget, making entire training mechanism
run on ad-hoc and irrational manner.
 Absence of training as part of manpower
management; Manpower training invariably
remains excluded/marginalised from the service
career of majority of state employees. Even at the
time of induction into public services after selection,
employees are not given any training regarding ;
their role, importance in state operations, work they
are required to perform; services they are supposed
to provide/render; work culture and work ethics to
be followed while rendering public services;
technology to be used in official operations;
objectives and goals of the organisation to be
achieved; manner of dealing with public;
operational efficiency to be achieved; problems
likely to be encountered while rendering services to
the people; caring for elders, marginalised sections
of society/physically challenged/women /children;
promoting sustainability; valuing state resources etc.
 Considering training as wastage of resources; In
majority of cases involving governance and
manpower management in the states, resources used
for training are considered merely unproductive and
sheer waste. Accordingly, majority of departments
do not find any value in training its manpower and
don’t sponsor employees for undergoing any
training and skilling, depriving majority of
employees the benefits of getting trained and skilled.
Majority of officials are not provided even once, the
benefit of getting exposed to training during their
entire service career in the government.
 Training confined to senior level Services; Looking
at the entire framework prevailing in the states, it can
be observed that culture of training remains confined
largely to central services including;
IFS/IAS/IPS/IFS/IAAS/IRS/MES and State Civil
Services including Judicial/ PCS/PSS/Revenue
officials etc. Training does not find any space in the
services/career of junior/technical services. This
excludes majority of state employees from the
benefit of having exposure to emerging
technologies/knowledge and innovations taking
place in their field of operation.
 Issues of managing training institutes;
Administrative Training Institutes, in majority of
cases are manned by in-service senior bureaucrats
belonging to central services. Considering
prevailing political culture, posting and deployment
of such manpower remains both fluid and uncertain.
Frequent transfers lead to promoting adhocism and
subjectivity creeping into the institutions, leading to
its inefficient operations. In majority of cases, these
institutions have become parking space for the
senior level functionaries of the state, not finding
favour with the ruling political system besides
becoming preferred place for deploying retired
manpower, having close proximity to the
bureaucrats. This culture invariably adversely
impacts the work culture and performance of the
apex training institutes in the state.
 Limited availability of skilled manpower in
training institutes; Looking at the fabric, structure
and operation of the training institutes, core faculty
required for imparting required level of training and
skilling remains conspicuous by its absence.
Majority of functions related to training are being
performed on ad-hoc basis by the manpower having
little knowledge and expertise in the domain of
imparting teaching. Limited availability of core
faculty can be attributed to cumbersome rules and
regulations put in place for recruiting the core
faculty and absence of professionals heading the
institute.
 Using departmental culture for running the
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7. training institutes ; Considering the fact, that
training institutes are being headed by working
bureaucrats, accordingly, these institutions are being
run on the analogy of state line departments,
subjected to strict government regulations and
checks and balances made applicable to line
departments of the state. Majority of manpower
deployed in the training institutes remain
administrative in nature with limited number of
professionals on the rolls of these institutes for
training.
 Limited capacity in the domain of manpower
training; Considering the prevailing culture of
available manpower; leadership positions manned
by serving professionals; absence of professional
trainers and low priority given to training and
skilling the trainers; the capacity of the existing
institutes to do justice with training and skilling
appears to be marginalized, diluted and muted.
Professionals involved in imparting training have
limited opportunities of getting exposed to the
innovations being made in the domain of quality
training and skilling, which invariably leads to
impacting quality of trainers involved in training.
 Absence of departmental calendar of training
manpower; In absence of any state priority, no
department has any defined agenda and yearly
calendar for training and skilling its manpower,
based on defined needs of the services being
rendered, skill required for discharge of duties and
development programs being undertaken by the
state government. Accordingly, training programs
are being run in an ad-hoc manner and in a fire-
fighting mode on subjects,
 Treating training as a paid holiday; In majority of
cases, employees deputed for training considered it
as a paid holiday, opportunity of getting away from
office culture and leisure trip without relevance to
skilling and value addition. Attractive destinations
of training, invariably involves large number of
senior functionaries, having little relevance and
connectivity with the subject of training, attending
these programs, which defeats the very purpose of
training and skilling the manpower.
 Focus on quantity rather than on quality; Looking
at the large number of central schemes launched by
the Government of India in various domains of
empowering urban and rural India; under all the
central schemes, dedicated funds are earmarked for
training various stakeholders. The responsibility of
imparting training is vested in the state and privately
run training institutions, identified/approved by the
central/state governments. In search for generating
more revenue majority of identified training
institutes focus on only quantity rather than on
quality of training and skilling and completing the
number of modules, defeating the very purpose of
such training.
 Nominating wrong beneficiaries; Critically
analyzing the manpower deployed for training in
various institutes, it can be observed that few
departments invariably repeat the same officials for
training, irrespective of relevance of the subject of
training and work profile of the trainee, because
training is considered of little relevance to the
institutions and mere wastage of the time.
Accordingly, most disinterested people are sent for
training, which not only dilutes the relevance/
rationale of such training but also generates negative
environment.
 Limited role of department of personnel; State
department of personnel and manpower
management remains alienated from the entire
fabric, structure and the manner of
conducting/managing training and skilling
manpower deployed in state and parastatal
departments, with the result most of the training
programs remain confined to four walls of the
training institutes. In the absence of any interaction
between state and training institutes there exists
little uniformity/standardization of training being
imparted, which in many cases adversely impact the
quality and relevance of training
 Absence of Training Institutions at District Level;
In majority of cases training institutes remain
confined to the state capitals or in the metro cities,
limiting the availability of training opportunities at
the district/local level. This adversely impacts the
quality of manpower operating at the district level,
which house all line departments in the state.
 Assessing training outcomes; In order to assess the
efficacy and effectiveness of the training imparted
and to make the training qualitative, rational and
meaningful, assessing and evaluating the
participants’ feedback remains crucial and valuable.
However, feedback remains largely confined to
teacher delivering the lecture and is rarely done for
the course contents, scope and its rationale and
relevance in discharging the duties and functions to
be performed.
 Training approach remains largely in-put based
rather out-put based; having more focus on the
quality of faculty rather than on the learning of the
trainees.
 Lack of research and documentation; Quality
training has remained elusive in India mainly for the
reason that very little effort has been made and
importance given to the area of research and
development in the domain of art and science of
training and skilling manpower deployed in the state
and parastatal services. Absence of documenting
good practices made applicable in the domain of
quality training has also been recognized as one of
the major road-block in making training of
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8. manpower qualitative.
7 Options for Making Training more focused and
more Productive;
7.1 Considering the entire gamut, role and importance
of training and skilling manpower in the
operational/functional domain of state and parastatal
agencies, it will be vital and critical that all existing
roadblocks in the skilling/training manpower are
appropriately identified and removed, to pave way for
putting in place good governance. For achieving the
objective, the intent, content, scope, fabric and structure
of training the manpower deployed in state services
should be rationally reviewed, revised and redefined to
make it more focused. The entire framework of skilling
the manpower should be made to revolve around:
 Creating a well-defined, objective and focused state
policy of training and skilling manpower deployed
in the public services.
 According highest priority to manpower training by
making training integral part of career in all civil
services, right from induction to retirement from
service including taking up different roles and
responsibilities during service career. Linking
training with ll promotions involving higher role and
responsibilities.
 Creating a network of training institutes, with an
apex institute created at state level for training and
skilling the manpower in all identified domains of
knowledge and skill required in the state services,
duly supported by the training institutes operating at
district levels for disseminating training to
employees working at grass root level.
 Creating a dedicated manpower cadre for training
and manning institutions engaged in imparting
training.
 Mandating that training institutions should be
headed by eminent professionals and quality faculty,
working in the domain of training, appointed on
regular basis. Practice of appointing working
bureaucrats may be dispensed with by excluding
these positions from the state bureaucratic cadre.
 Creating a dedicated funds for training of the
employees in the state budget, based on the norms
specified in the National Training Policy, 2012 ie @
2.5 percent of salary budget.
 Creating a well-defined system for defining the
needs of training, managing training and skilling
manpower in each department of state/parastatal
agencies, duly assisted, advised and supported by
the apex training institute.
 Embedding culture of training covering the entire
manpower involved in the civil services at state/ at
local level. Dedicated funds may be made available
in all such agencies to undertake the task of training,
in co-operation and collaboration with state training
institutes
 Creating dedicated Cell within the training institutes
for promoting research and development in the art
and science of imparting training to make it more
qualitative, productive and focused.
 Framework for training may be defined for all
employees in the civil services. Assessment of
employees undergoing training may be made on
regular basis for evaluating the effectiveness of
training in skilling and making value addition to the
manpower.
 All good practices evolved and used in the domain
of manpower training, both locally and globally,
may be documented and disseminated for wider
understanding besides studying its applicability in
the local environment.
 Bringing all the State training institutions, operating
in the country, on a common platform under the
umbrella of the Indian Institute of Public
Administration for sharing good practices in training
process and evolving strategies and options for
making the training process more meaningful and
focused.
 Making training institutions work as a think tank for
evaluating efficacy and appropriateness of all
government sponsored schemes; suggesting
modifications for making it more rational and
preparing manpower for implementing the
schemes/program at local level.
 Creating opportunities and space to the employees
in the domain of higher learning by networking with
reputed institutes of higher learning, operating at
regional, national and global level.
 Promoting and facilitating exchange of faculty with
similarly placed institutions working in the domain
of the training in skilling the manpower for
empowering faculty and learning latest innovations
in the art and science of training and skilling.
 Conducting feasibility studies of application of
latest and innovative technologies in the domain of
operation, functioning and monitoring the state
operations including the work involved in day-to-
day operations for making such operations
technology led.
 Assisting and advising line departments for
rationalizing different operating procedures used for
granting approvals to make them simple and cost-
effective.
 Developing a Training Management Information
System (TMIS) to facilitate training and
development activities of various departments and
creating space and options for promoting e-
governance as apart of training.
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9. 8.0 Way forward
8.1 Efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness of any
organisation squarely depends upon on, how well its
employees are skilled and professionally trained, in
the art and science of understanding the
organization’s role, responsibility, work culture and
work ethics; capacity to discharge and perform
functions and delivering services with objectivity,
sincerity and commitment, to make value addition to
the institution. Accordingly, it becomes vital and
important that entire manpower deployed in the state
services should be appropriately empowered, made
knowledgeable and skilled so that they are able to
serve the community effectively and efficiently. It
needs to be understood and appreciated that manpower
deployed in state services forms the fulcrum around
which the entire credibility, effectiveness, operational
efficiency, productivity and cost-effectiveness
gravitates.
8.2 For making training more effective, it will be
critical and essential to clearly define the role,
responsibilities and level of performance of each
employee, before making them undergo any training
program for achieving the desired organisational goal
and making optimum use of resources involved in the
training process. Undergoing training should not be
seen as a privilege but as the basic right of every
employee right from the day of employment. Creating
a transparent, objective and transparent criteria of
evaluating the impact of training is another vital aspect
of effective manpower training and development.
Capacity building of training institutes having support
of quality and trained manpower and professionally
managing the training institutes, shall invariably and
essentially form the corner stone of manpower
training. How effectively states will be able to put in
place a conducive and supportive environment for
skilling and training its entire manpower, effectively
and efficiently, will hold the key for promoting good
governance and firmly establishing the democratic
structure made operational at various levels of
governance in India.
9.0 Bibliography
 Government of India; Ministry of Personnel,
Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of
Personnel and Training; National Training Policy
2012
 Kayode Aasaju; Manpower Training and
Development: An essential for Achieving
organizational Goals; published paper; May 2008;
Email: asajuk@gmail.com
 Herrity Jennifer; The Importance of Training
Employees: February 5, 2020; Updated May 24,
2022
 https://assignmentpoint.com/purpose-of-training-
and-development/
 Business Science ; Human Resource Management:
Training and Executive Development;
 https://www.brainkart.com/article/Purpose-and-
Benefits-of-training_7253/
 Nelson Bob; 1,001 Ways To Engage Employees;
Help People To Do Better What They Do Best;
paperback; July 23,2018; amazon.
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