INVESTIGATING THE INTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF SUGAR ENGINEERS: A CASE STUDY OF TONGAAT HULETT SUGAR (SOUTH AFRICA)

Abstract

Extensive training and development has become the most important aspect of modern organisations in response to dynamically changing technology and market. Organisations engage in training and development initiatives to improve their performance in order to maintain a competitive edge over rivals as well as to survive turbulent markets. It has been hypothesised that there is a significant premium for having effective training and development programmes for any organisation. Researchers have invested their time and
energy in understanding the factors affecting the training and development of employees and the impact of training and development in organisations. The shortage of sugar engineers in Tongaat Hulett Sugar has resulted in the poor management of operations in the factories, and, subsequently, reduced outputs. This has raised concerns to management and stakeholders about the effectiveness of the training and the development programme designed for sugar engineers. This study investigates the internal factors affecting the training and development programme associated with sugar engineers, with an argument that the shortage of sugar engineers in Tongaat Hulett Sugar has resulted from an ineffective training and development programme offered by the organisation. The study focuses specifically on ascertaining the effectiveness of the programme, determining the challenges of the programme, examining
whether the challenges are resolvable and exploring ways in which the programme may be improved.