Full Range of Leadership Styles on Competency Acquisition under the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Apprenticeship Training in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Apprenticeship being a practical-oriented training is one of the affected areas for the On-the-Job-Training in the COVID-19 pandemic era. Since apprenticeship training is time and competency-based, the lockdowns, stay at home and social distancing rules as pronounced by the Government due to COVID-19, temporarily suspended the continuation of the proficiency skills syllabi at colleges and competency acquisition in various companies. However, delay in the skills acquisition is unjust especially now as the industry faces collapse due to lack of appropriate skills and the skillfulness of personnel. Since competency acquisition is realized in terms of performance outcomes of trainees in industry, leadership plays a significant role in guiding, supporting, motivating and ensuring trainees acquire prerequisite competencies in such unprecedented situations. This paper presents the role of the Full Range Leadership style in competency acquisition for trainees doing apprenticeship training programs under the COVID-19 pandemic era in Zimbabwe. This is quantitative research which comprises a sample of 239 trainees which was established using an online survey that enabled rapid and effective distribution of an online questionnaire during the COVID-19 crisis. Then, data were analyzed using various statistical techniques. The results show distinctions among leadership styles in predicting competency acquisition by trainees and transformational leadership were found to be statistically significant to trainees’ competency acquisition under the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper recommends the adoption of transformational leadership and intensifying transformational leadership training to capacitate staff members at the training institutions in Zimbabwe now and in the post-pandemic era.