 | It Did Not Happen Overnight: The History of Group-Based Credit Programmes in Kenya (K-REP, 1996, 54 p.) |
 |  | CHAPTER 10. INNOVATIONS IN STAFF RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING |
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10.3 Staff placement
Recruitment has always been advertised in newspapers. Previously, candidates were shorlisted for an oral interview and those selected trained for two weeks. Those selected automatically became K-REP employees even before the training. Now recruitment is in three stages as follows:
· shortlisting
· written interview
· oral interview(s)
Those selected for training do not become K-REP employees automatically. They are treated as trainees for the entire length of the training. Closer assessment of the candidates continues throughout the training. Both training officers and field staff are involved in assessing the candidates. Each candidate is expected to write a report on their experience during field attachment. The field staff to whom they are attached write a confidential evaluation of the candidates’ abilities. Only those who complete their training successfully become K-REP employees. Newly appointed credit officers are put on a six month probation before confirmation.
Credit Officers have also been categorized. The job was not initially differentiated and this caused some frustration among older staff as the new were appointed on similar terms and with equal benefits. Now we have credit officer levels one to three.
The current training programme reflects the changes in role of the credit officers, as demonstrated in Box 3.
Box 3: Changes in co training between 1990 and 1991
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INITIAL CO TRAINING 1. CONTENT First concentrated on selling the idea of a sustainable credit scheme and developing the financial management skills. · Comparative analysis of integrated and minimalist approaches. 2. DESIGN · Initially a two week training bringing all staff of the credit schemes. Initially, a two-week workshop was done with follow-up in the field. The learning was limited to in-workshop session and based largely on hyperthetical scenarios. The methodology was largely lectures, exercises and group/individual tasks. |
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CURRENT CO TRAINING 1. CONTENT Has undergone major changes every year to incorporate and reflect changes occurring in operations and lessons learned during implementation. The need for selling the ‘Juhudi’ diminished while community mobilization problem solving and facilitation skills took prominence. The greatest change occurred last year with the inclusion of Chikola training. · The SME (informal) sector in national development 2. DESIGN Design has undergone charges each year. Some times as in 1993, charges occurred twice in the year. These include: Focusing: A two week competency model was developed on the basis of the CO’s job task analysis. Since 1993 this has been ordered to incorporate Chikola Credit process, alternates in-workshop training with practical field work. In addition to actual attachment on-job training, experienced credit officer and operations manager are drawn as resource persons. Duration: The initial two week workshop was expanded first to include a one-week preworkshop and two-week postworkshop attachment. Various configurations of alternating in-workshop with field based training have been experimented with. A three month training was first designed and held in 1993 to provide for more training contact time both in-workshop and in field prior to deployment. Currently a more comprehensive training is being prepared. This will incorporate and consolidate reorganization of K-REP. The new CO training will have an initial four weeks in-workshop and a four weeks field attachment. A one/two week in-workshop sessions will follow before the trainees proceed on a six month ‘on job training’. During the latter part, the trainees will begin building up a portfolio while the Area managers and older Co’s will provide most of the training. |
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