IMPLICATION OF TRAINING AND RETRAINING PROGRAMMES OF SEAFARERS ON THE REDUCTION OF MARINE ACCIDENT/SHIP COLLISIONS

Introduction

Human beings are the pivot of work in the productive venture. This explains why organization and nations take good steps to ensure the effectiveness of individual. Human beings provide ideas, innovations, invention and thereby wealth for the benefit of both employers and employees, (Sussman 2006). This cannot be achieved if workers are not properly trained. Hence, training has always been recognized as an important factor that contributes to improved performance of an employee right from the days of Fredrick Taylor of Scientific Management Fame (Maduabum, 2000:183, in Laff 2006).

Training can be viewed as the acquisition of skills, knowledge and abilities to enable one function effectively in the performance of one’s job. Training of workers is very important to the development and growth of any country most especially the organization. Training is meant for increasing the usefulness of the worker at the work place. The need for training workers in any organization is to develop and use their abilities for the achievement of organizational goals and the fulfillment of individual job satisfaction. Hence, Kirkpatrick (2005), state employees, in most cases, are the largest investment a company will ever make. A commitment to investing in their training and development is a prudent strategic move that will not only enhance productivity, but also increase employee satisfaction.

According to Sugrue (2003) in-service training provides an effective and efficient way to satisfy the demand for skill in organizations characterized by continuous change in technology and competition. First, it allows new employees to acquire firm-specific skills and knowledge that are hard to obtain in the market, while allowing incumbent employees to stay abreast of changes in technical systems and product offerings. Second, it may be more effective than classroom training because employees learn through continuous, context-situated learning initiatives, rather than via infrequent or isolated training activities. Okokon and Benteke (2005) argued along side Sugrue 2003) which affirms in their studies that in-service training is less costly because it reduces productivity loss associated with time away from work and it saves expenditures associated with training specialists and materials. Because it can be integrated into daily work schedules, it also provides greater flexibility than traditional, off-the-job training. In sum, on-the job training can yield substantial economic pay-offs to companies through the on-going skill acquisition of employees.

Training and retraining is like sharpening an existing skill in order to reflect the trends in technology and other social–cultural environmental changes of an organization and good employee training models include training for collaborative management, in addition to career management and skill enhancement training (Seldman and Thomas-Williams, 2005). Productivity is the goal of today’s competitive business world and training can be a spring board to enhance productivity. The main objective of training and development in service organization is to increase efficiency of employees with the resulting increase in corporate productivity. This accounts for why a large number of fund and time is expected by organization at one period or the order in the improvement of the skills of their employees at various levels. The principal intention of training and retraining according to Akpan (2001:128) is to equip people with the knowledge required to qualify them for a particular position of employment, or to improve their skills and efficiency in the position they already hold.