TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT AS DETERMINANT OF ORGANIZATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The Coronavirus Disease-2019 is one of the biggest challenges the world is facing. No one has come prepared for it which resulted to great loss and even business closures. It is necessary that businesses must be sustainable enough to surpass even the most unexpected crisis. Readiness can be achieved by educating employees through training and development. Hence, this study focused on determining how training and development serves as determinants for organizational sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this study aimed to determine the following: 1) the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of age, gender, course major and working industry; 2) the working students' perception on the most effective method of training and development during the COVID-19 pandemic; 3)the factors that should be considered in choosing training and development activities during the COVID-19 pandemic; 4) the challenges working students think organizations encounter in conducting training and development during the COVID-19 pandemic; and, 5)the contributions of training and development in the sustainability of an organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive research design was used in the study. Using a researcher-made questionnaire and a Likert scale, data were collected from ten students which were selected through the convenience sampling. Moreover, basic statistical treatments like frequency, percentage and weighted mean were used in the study. The study revealed that majority of the respondents falls to 21 years old and below and females with the course major BSBA-FM working in the food industry. In addition based on the perceptions of the students in training and development during the COVID-19 pandemic, "On-the-job development" is the most effective method, of training employees" should be the first and foremost factor that should be considered, "Dealing with change" is the greatest challenge organizations encounter, and "Training and development increases understanding of the organization culture" is the greatest contribution of training and development in organizational sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic.