Linking Practical Spss Training to Research Competence Among Postgraduate Students at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Westland’s Campus

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to assess the effectiveness of the practical SPSS training to postgraduate students’ research competency. Methodology: An explanatory research design was used to establish the relationship between practical SPSS training and research competence of students. The population was 20 students and a census of the full population was taken. A questionnaire was administered at the end of the training to capture the pre and post training experience and test the effectiveness of the training. The analysis of the data was conducted through descriptive and inferential statistics. In particular, frequencies, means, standard deviations and paired t-test were used. Results: The post training evaluation results reveal that majority of the respondents had low knowledge in data entry, descriptive statistics, regression and correlation analysis, parametric and non-parametric analysis, and journal article extraction and publication. Results also reveal that the level of knowledge significantly increased after the training. This is supported by the paired t-tests conducted on each aspect of training. Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: It was recommended that it would value to organize practical SPSS trainings regularly at the campus. It was suggested that University may consider supporting the training financially or the students to be requested to pay a token fee to make the training sustainable. In the event, that these recommendations were untenable, it was suggested that the training consultant to look for funding from the National Research Fund. It was also suggested that the training can be made compulsory for all students undertaking Business Research Methods and points to accrue once they attend the training. Further, trainings workshops can be used to test pedagogical theories which establish the right mix of training techniques, between theory based, practice based and the blend of theory and practical approaches to training.