English abstract
The thesis deals with the educational and training problems facing the private training institutes as perceived by their directors. The study aims at finding out the problems facing these institutes and to suggest the optimum solutions in an attempt to upgrade the abilities and performance of these institutes, improve the quality of training to meet the needs of the national economy in the Sultanate of Oman in the terms of the local qualified labour force. Furthermore, the study intends to help decision makers to chart out appropriate policies and implementation measures to minimize the problems and activate the role of the institutes towards achieving their goals in upgrading the local labour force. The sample of the study consists of (100) private training institutes distributed among the areas and governorates of the Sultanate. To achieve the objectives of the study, a questionnaire was designed to reveal the educational and training problems as perceived by the directors of the private training institutes. The questionnaire includes (40) items covering four dimensions (training texts, teaching methods; trainees; trainers). The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was tested statistically, The SPSS was employed to analyze the data statistically. The mean, standard deviation, and the relative importance for each item of the four dimensions related to educational and training problems being faced by the directors of the private training institutes discussed earlier were calculated. Also, the analysis of variance, means and standard deviations were calculated for each of these dimensions, based on the format related to the educational and training problems being faced by the private training institutes, according to the directors. The results indicate that most important items which scored a mean of greater than 3 are: weakness of trainees in English language, educational background, lack of feeling among the trainees that they are pursuing a profession from the training programmes and the weakness of the trainees enrollment in the training programmes. This means that the fundamental problems being faced by the private training institutes lie in special characteristics of the trainees, knowledge and profession wise. This has led to their minimum absorption and perception of the training programmes. The trainees are forced to this situation owing to lack of motivation and dominating belief that the programmes are not adequate enough for them to secure a profession. Thereby, it has led finally to an increase in the percentage of drop outs in these institutes.
The results also indicated the common agreements of the directors about the existence of problems related to trainees, location, programmes, technical equipment and workshops. However, there exist difference of opinion among directors with regard to training course content and problems related to trainers. The experienced directors emphasize the need for enhancement of training texts and teaching methods, whereas, the less experienced directors think that the training texts and teaching methods are adequate. Adding to that, there was a difference in the opinions of the directors according to their experience regarding the problems related to the trainers and the language of training. Some of the directors reinforce the necessity of English language for training, whereas the others prefer the Arabic language as it facilitates the transformation of information to the trainees. The qualification and the nationality of the directors did not signify the existence of the problems included in the study. All the directors have different views about the problems according to the size of training institute. Some of them report that the size of the institute has positive impact on minimizing the problems, whereas, others think the opposite. Thus, the difference in terms of the size of the institutes was statistically significant. The study has concluded and suggested several recommendations in an attempt to develop the status of the private training institutes in the Sultanate of Oman. These recommendations and suggestions were based on the results of the study and the prevailing trends in vocational training.
