Abstract:
It has been repeatedly indicated that an integrated development
of the rural sector will to a large extent determine Ethiopia’s
overall economic growth. This is stated mainly because over
90% of the Ethiopian population make a living on an income
derived from sabsistance agriculture. This still remains to Extension and Project Implementation Department is no
exception to the prevailing conditions and oven more so
when we refer to the field level of development personnel.
Though EPID's policy of employment is to utilize graduates
of the already established educational institutes, Colleges
and Voccational Schoolsm The absence of functional machinery
for such a coordination and the urgency of the field personnel
requirement has pressed EPID into the uctual operation of
trainint programmes.
This being the situation, EPID will continue to provide a
pre-service training of 6?22 months for students who are
recruited from high schools as a part of its regular programme,
though it is fully aware that the cost involved could be reduced
if Agriculture is incorporated into the curricula of the overall
programme of the normal high school education.
In future, it is anticipated that the Agricultural Education
Department within the Ministry cf Agriculture and Settlement
will take the responsibility of running all tnaining centers.
As is the case presently The Agricultural Educational
Department and The Higher Education Commission are responsible
for middle and high level manpower development programmes.
If these educational and training organization take the
responsibility of training all levels of personnel training,
EPID’s resources could be directed towards the development
cf training materials for farmers and staff upgrading programmes
Resources of trained Staff who are engaged on such training
could also be used for improvement of the farmers programme.
If these responsibilities are taken over by appropriate
organizations, EPID*s relation with training and higheducational organizations will focus in feeding informations
of field experiences, on desired type and qualities of personnel However, most of the educational organizations are faced with
storage of manpower and financial resources to meet the
needs of all employing agencies. EPID along with other
employing agencies will have to continue supporting educational
organizations both financially and technically to enable them
meet expectations of employers we feel that, with such a.
distribution of responsibilities. With proper coordination of
resources and programming it is possible to produce the deseed,
type of manpower for rural development programmes.
This training g*iide is therefore to indicate areas of Concern
for consideration of EPID authorities and rural educational
organizations on onehand and to indicate to the already
employed staff within EPID about the possibilities of improving
their skills while employed on the other. Furthermore, it will
also serve as a guide of training opportunities for staff
employed within EPID and Rural Development Educational
Institutes who might be interested in identifying EPIDfs
Training needs for a better coordination and manpower
development scheme for the rural sector.
be the mainstay of the Ethiopian economy, though there are
possibilities for industrial development whose considerations
are also economically viable. But in a developing nation like
Ethiopia whose economic growth mainly depends on Agricultural
development, yet with limited financial & trained manpower
resources, the coordination of available resources in the
planning of development programmes becomes absolutely essential.
Cne of the main factors to be considered in the planning of
Agricultural development programmes being the availability of
desired type of trained manpower coordination of outputs from
educational establishments and needs of employing agencies
seems to have been overlooked. Though it is obvious that
Ethiopians existing rural educational establishments and new
ones to be opened in the near future will have to coordinate
resources and work closely with employing agencies so that
the ultimate product i.e. trained manpower,could be utilized
by employing agencies directly without any further training
and expense, it still requires further effort for better
coordinations. The absence of such of coordination of the
manpower development with the needs of employing agencies has
- opened leeways for duplications of efforts and missappropriation
of the limited financial resources. This being the case, today
one can observe very easily that practically every government
agency has a component of its own independent training unit. Extension and Project Implementation Department is no
exception to the prevailing conditions and oven more so
when we refer to the field level of development personnel.
Though EPID's policy of employment is to utilize graduates
of the already established educational institutes, Colleges
and Voccational Schoolsm The absence of functional machinery
for such a coordination and the urgency of the field personnel
requirement has pressed EPID into the uctual operation of
trainint programmes.
This being the situation, EPID will continue to provide a
pre-service training of 6?22 months for students who are
recruited from high schools as a part of its regular programme,
though it is fully aware that the cost involved could be reduced
if Agriculture is incorporated into the curricula of the overall
programme of the normal high school education.
In future, it is anticipated that the Agricultural Education
Department within the Ministry cf Agriculture and Settlement
will take the responsibility of running all tnaining centers.
As is the case presently The Agricultural Educational
Department and The Higher Education Commission are responsible
for middle and high level manpower development programmes.
If these educational and training organization take the
responsibility of training all levels of personnel training,
EPID’s resources could be directed towards the development
cf training materials for farmers and staff upgrading programmes
Resources of trained Staff who are engaged on such training
could also be used for improvement of the farmers programme.
If these responsibilities are taken over by appropriate
organizations, EPID*s relation with training and higheducational organizations will focus in feeding informations
of field experiences, on desired type and qualities of personnel