Capacity building among employees in the Gauteng Department of Education, South Africa : a Case Study of Ekurhuleni South District

Abstract

The fundamental pursuit of capacity building is to strengthen an organisation’s effectiveness and sustainability through empowering employees with skills and knowledge resulting in enhanced performance for both the organisation and its employees. Organisations need to invest in the development of their employees to ensure that employees reach their full potential and become innovative in their thinking to help organisations grow and perform well. The study aimed at evaluating how learning and development programmes could address the contextual realities of limited individual capabilities and the need to provide relevant opportunities for employee participation and organisation’s performance in Ekurhuleni South District by exploring how institutional arrangements such as policies, strategies and frameworks were used by organisation to manage the process of capacity building across all positions occupied by employees. In searching for answers to the research questions, hypotheses were formulated, a triangulation approach in the form of questionnaires, interviews and secondary sources was utilised. The findings from the analysed data indicated that the employees were dissatisfied with the organisation’s capacity building programmes as they did not address their development needs and that their identified needs for development through QMS and PMDS, the SIP and the DIP did not often address their needs. The study recommends among others, proper and effective training for employees which will enable employees to grow personally and professionally.