CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Training and development have become a very important and pivotal phenomenon in most organization including the civil service.  As is well known, it is important to observe that in the civil service, for example, productivity and output are functions of the employee’s abilities and these abilities are enhance through training and retraining.  To sustain this tempo, the Delta State Civil Service has established the Staff Training Centre where courses and training programmes in the Secretarial Cadre are mounted for serving officers.  In addition to the above, officers are deliberately encouraged to embark on programmes and innovations are aimed at improving the overall performance of the employees on their jobs, which in the long run will lead to increased productivity and increase job satisfaction. Also, training and development would lead to reduced supervision and increased motivation of staff in Delta State University, Asaba Campus. In the course of this research work, attempt would be made to make a distinction between Training and Development. Ekakitie (2009) state that training involves the process of developing skills and training concepts, rules or attitudes to increase the effectiveness of doing a particular job. Sikula (1970) state that development is a long term educational process that utilizes a systematic and organized procedure by which management personnel learn concepts and theoretical knowledge for general purposes. Another scholar, G. A. Cole defines training as “the preparation for an   occupation of for specific skills.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The main focus of this research work is to establish the impact of training and development in the public service with particular reference to the Delta State University, Asaba Campus.  It seeks to determine the extent to which training programmes have impacted on the performance of beneficiaries.  This is because, organizations make conscious efforts to invest on the training and development of its staff expecting improved performance. However, experience has shown that apart from the huge investment on training and staff development, some employee still return from training and fails to perform when faced with real work situation.   For some others, the facilities and equipment to perform are lacking. In such a situation, the employee though may have been trained would still not be able to perform, thus making the job uninteresting, and not result-oriented.  This is commonly experienced in the secretarial/computer operator cadre and works superintendent cadre where though the employees may have been trained, the relevant computer accessories and mechanical tools are not provided. 1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY  The objective of the study is as follows:

1. To find out if the Delta State University, Asaba Campus does functional and existing Human Resources Development (HRD) department.
2. To investigate whether the staff of Delta State University, Asaba Campus has ever been sent on training.
3. To investigate whether the Delta state university, Asaba Campus have a designed training programme for its workforce.
4. To investigate the impact of lack of training of staff of the Delta State University, Asaba Campus.
5. To recommend ways of how to improve staff for higher productivity in the Delta State University, Asaba Campus.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS The question that readily comes to mind is, how and what should be done to ensure improved performance after training.  In this research work, attempt should be made to provide answers to the following questions.

1. What is the relevance of training and development to work productivity?
2. Has training and development programmes improved efficiency in Delta State University, Asaba Campus, that is, how effective has the training programmes affected productivity in Delta State University, Asaba Campus?
3. How committed is the Delta State Government to the training of its staff?
4. How are the training and development determined?
5. How is the staff committed to training and development?