INDUSTIAL ATTACHEMENT REPORT: A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL

COUNCIL FOR POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT

BY
MARGARET MUTHONI KIMANI

A REPORT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF A DIPLOMA IN ARCHIVE AND
RECORD MANAGEMENT TO THE KENYA INSTITUTE OF
MANAGEMENT

JULY 2021
DECLARATION

Declaration by the student

This Industrial attachment report is my original work and has not been presented to
any other examination body. No part of this report should be reproduced without my
consent or that of The Kenya Institute of Management.

Name_______________________ Sign_______________Date____________

KIM/DARM/92544/19

Declaration by the supervisor

This industrial attachment report has been submitted for registration with my approval
as The Kenya Institute of Management Supervisor.

Name _______________________ Sign_______________Date____________

Lecturer Supervising

For and on behalf of The Kenya Institute of management

Name_________________________ Sign_______________Date____________

Branch Manager – Nairobi Branch

DEDICATION
I dedicate this study to my beloved to my mother Loise Kimani and my son Elvis
Kimani, who supported and encouraged me throughout the attachment period.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My gratitude and regards goes to the management of Kenya Institute of Management
for their support, assistance and giving me this opportunity to go and be able to carry
out my practical learning so as to be able to apply the theoretically learning lessons in
action within the Archive and record management department.

I would also like to thank National Council for Population and Development for
giving me this opportunity to work and learn in their organization. I have greatly
benefited in improving my skills in the industry of human resource management.

I acknowledge the immense contribution of my supervisor……………. for her

patience, support, professional guidance and availability. My sincere gratitude also
goes to the staff of National Council for Population and Development for the support
and the patient that they offered to me throughout the attachment period. Finally I
gave thanks to almighty God for the continuous blessing before, during and after
attachment period.
 ABSTRACT
The main purpose of this industrial attachment report is to establish what I have
learned and experienced in the Archive and Recoding department of National Council
for Population and Development as well as the contributions that I have made in the
organization. The report begins with an introduction, then the body which shows
where and what I participated or did. In addition every section has its observation.
The report ends with conclusions and recommendations.

The essence of the attachment is to provide an intern with experience and other
management skills which are required in the actual workplaces. The attachment took
eight weeks at National Council for Population and Development as required, in the
attachment I covered several managerial sections ranging from: record keeping, stock
taking, fillings, archiving and retrieval of the document from cabinets etc.

The report establishes what I observed at National Council for Population and
Development and conclusion on what is done and finalized with recommendations.
This report is specifically able to provide true reflection on all activities undertaken
while in the organization.
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The main purpose of industrial attachment is to create the need for any student by
showing a clear picture of what is expected of them in really life. Industrial
attachment is a field of practical training experience that prepares trainee for the tasks
they are expected to perform on completion of their course. This report contains
information which I gathered during my industrial attachment at National Council for
Population and Development for a period of eight weeks. As a student, my
participation in this attachment was to make sure that I acquire new knowledge and
practical skills, improving my confidence in managing problems and to utilize the
opportunity to integrate with people of different diversity likely to be met in real life
situations. This piece of work gives details of all the activities I undertook at National
Council for Population and Development, the experience I gained, the practical skills
acquired and the personal inputs to the organization. The report also gives a brief
introduction about National Council for Population and Development and the activity
of different departments in the organization. The report also gives details of the
duties/functions of my host department which was storekeeping. The information am
giving in this report reflects all the achievements I achieved according to my
objectives set herein. The benefits, success, challenges encountered and how I was
able to overcome these challenges. It also shows my recommendations and the
conclusion of my industrial attachment.
 TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION……………………………………………………………….…...ii
DEDICATION……………………………………………..…………………...…..iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………...……………..…….iv
ABSTRACT………………………………………………….………………....……v
LIST OF TABLES…………………………………………………….…………...viii
LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………….…………..ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATION/ACRONYMS……………………..………..…..…... x
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS…………………………...…………xi

SECTION ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction....................................................................................................1
1.2 Organization ………………………..……………………...............…….. 1
1.3 Strategic Objectives .......................................................................................7
1.4 Mission, Vision and value ……………….................................................. 8
1.5 Objectives …………................................................................................... 9
1.6 Organization structure................................................................................ 9
1.7 Departments …………………………………………….....................…….10

SECTION TWO
ATTACHMENT EXPERIENCE
2.1 General activities undertaken ..........................................................................9
2.2 Specific activity undertaken.......................................................................... 11
2.3 Analysis of knowledge and skill acquired…………………………..............12
2.4 Skills and competence gained ………………...………..…............................13
2.5 Observation and critique……………………..……………………………....14
2.6 Strategy for utilization for contracts established during attachment................15
 SECTION THREE
SUMMERY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1 Summary................................................................................................... 30
3.2 Conclusion................................................................................................... 30
3.3 Recommendation……................................................................................... 30
 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Organizational Structure.…………………..……………….………… 7
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
DOSH Directorate of Health and Safety
HR Human Resource
HRD Human Resource Department
KIM Kenya Institute of management
MD Managing Director
TAS Tandu Alarm Systems
WIBA Work Injury Benefit Act
 SECTION ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
The main purpose of this report is to demonstrate the experience that I acquired or
gained during my attachment period as well as to translate the theoretical learnt in
class into practice. The report is partial fulfillment of Kenya institute of management
attachment program. The report focuses mainly on the roles handled, responsibilities,
work environment and challenges that I encountered during my attachment period in
conducting various activities assigned to me by the organization through my line
supervisor. The attachment period was for a maximum of eight weeks effective 17 th
May 2021 to 9th July 2021 , of which I acquired lots experience and practical
knowledge the will supplement the course studied in the institution.

1.1.1 Organization attachment: National Council for Population and

Development
General
The National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) was established in
1982 as a department in the then office of the Vice President and Ministry of Home
Affairs. Its role was mainly to advice on all matters pertaining to population. NCPD’s
mandate was further enhanced under Sessional Paper No. 4 of 1984 on Population
Policy Guidelines, and was later revised, to form the backbone of Sessional Paper No.
1 of 2000 on National Population Policy for Sustainable Development. The
organization offices are situated at Chancery Building, 4 th floor along valley Road in
upper hill suburb of Nairobi,

The National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD) was
established as a Semi Government Autonomous Agency (SAGA) through Legal
Notice No. 120 contained in the Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 68 of 29 th October,
2004. Through legal notice No. 172 contained in Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 152,
dated 25th November 2011, the organization has since reverted back to its original
name, the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) as a public
entity, with the following mandates to;
1) Research and analyze population issues and develop policies relating to
population.
 2) Provide leadership and mobilize support for population programmes,
including coordination and implementation by different organizations.
3) Identify and advise on population issues that may not be adequately or
appropriately dealt with by the government.
4) Create public awareness on population and development issues in Kenya

Services Offered
 Conduct Research on population matters
 Develop population and related policies
 Coordinate implementation of the population policy and programmes by
various stakeholders.
 Carry out Monitoring and Evaluation of the implementation of population
programmes.

Our Vision
Quality Population for a Prosperous Kenya

Our Mission
To provide Excellent Leadership in Population Policy Development and its
Implementation for Sustainable Development

Our Core Values

Evidence based Inclusiveness
Professionalism Flexibility
Integrity
Our Motto
Our Population, Our Prosperity, Our Responsibility

Figure 1.1 Organization Structure of National Council for Population and

Development

Director General

Finance IT HR Logistic Marketing

Manager Manager Manager Manager Manager
Accountant Research Company Transport Sales Rep
Dep. Admin Manager

Clerk Technician Receptionist Coordinator Brand

Ambassador

Source: National Council for Population and Development (2021)

1.1.5 National Council for Population and Development departments

The company has a senior management team and the support staff. The different
departments are managed by highly skilled and knowledgeable management as per
their line of specialisation. These departments includes; recording & Archive
department, Human resource department, Finance department, Operations
department, Administration department, Transport department, Technical department,
Quality audit department, Fire department and procurement department.

1.2 Recording and Archive Department

The Recording and Archive department is one of the many departments found within
the organisation. The department is responsible in collecting records for permanent
preservation from various departments within the organization. Its main roles are
maintaining accurate records for the kept documents and information, storage
conservation and use of stored records, retrieval of the record, maintaining good
housekeeping n the stores. All activities in this department are managed in accordance
with the protection information Act.

The department is headed by senior Record and Archive Manager, whose highly
skilled and professional person. The department is further subdivided into the
following sections;
2. Repository
3. Microfilming
4. Public relation
5. Search room
6. Information communication technology
7. Conservation
 SECTION TWO
ATTACHMENT EXPRIENCES
2.1 General activities undertaken
Being on attachment, I undertook very many activities in the organization in different
departments, generally, I took part in general duties like providing support service to
all other departments, collecting records for permanent preservation, internal
customer liaison, storage conservation and use of public archives. And general routine
duties like record keeping and filling among other duties. I did participated in
providing technical advice to the members of the staff in the host department

2.2 Specific activities undertaken

Repository Section
The functions of this section include provision of a permanent storage to all
organization records and facilitating accession of the researchers or the management
staff. It is the records storage area where records are preserved, maintained and
controlled.

The major activities done here include the following;

 Arranging of records as per the originality, i.e. original order and area of
origin.
 Sorting out of records
 Boxing of records as well as assigning of box numbers and box reference
according to the records that are being dealt with.
 Shelving of boxed records as well as including its location in the guide.
 Retrieving of records for researchers as per the request made by the
researcher.
 Preparing shelves numbers and noting out each shelve with its record.
 Replacing worn out boxes and worn out file folders with the aim of
maintaining them and extending their lifespan.

Microfilming Section
The major work done in this is conversion of printed documents which includes the
company newsletters, and other records kept into digital formats. These newsletters
and documents are microfilmed and processed and finally stored according to
numbers, and hereby the concerned parties can request to read the information from a
microfilm reader.
The estimate life span of this microfilm is 10 years and this clearly tells why
documents are digitized. The other main tasks carried out in this section include the
following;
 Capturing the general information page by page from these documents by use
of modern cameras which can zoom out the letters in the documents using a
special lens.
 Processing of microfilming is done by mixing of worm and cold water thus
making the information to be permanently fixed in the films and last for long.
 Entering the captured data which is ready for use in the microfilming database.
 Retrieving microfilms requested from the search room by researchers
  Storing microfilms in microfilms store in an appropriate way so that time will
not be wasted during retrieving when the need be, this is done by allocating
valid continuous numbers in the microfilm which is referred, to when
retrieving them

Information Technology Section

This section manly cater for ICT needs for all other sections as per the hardware and
software requirements of these departments. The ICT section also troubleshoots
hardware problems, give out desk services and maintain overall database that provides
information services to researchers.

Occupational Health and Safety

I was also tasked to sensitize staff to the inherent dangers of the workplaces that an
employee may find himself or herself in during the course of their employment, safety
awareness, reporting of hazards and the need to take good care of emergency safety
equipment. Incise of any accident I was to send a notification to both DOSH and
insurance agency of the company.

2.3 An analysis of skill learnt knowledge and applied skills

During my attachment I was able to acquire knowledge and skills that will help me in
as an individual in my future running of my responsibilities and duties that may be
assigned to me at the work place and to develop in recording management by
applying the acquired skill and knowledge from my time at National Council for
Population and Development.

Technical competency
During my attachment I was able to apply most of management information skills
such as computer packages, Google software apps like docs, sheets, hangout charts,
slide, email, calendar etc, in dealing with most of organizational activities such as
digitizing of record and formations, data entry and video conference meeting. This
made most of my transactions more easer and efficient.

Improve my communication skills

Communication, not Just communication but effective communication should be part
and parcel of effective journalism. During the kickoff of my industrial attachment I
had a task to improve my communication skills. At the commencement of the
attachment, I realized that I didn’t communicate often. This is because I at times felt
unsecure about my English and the ‘Mother tongue interference’. At the end of the
internship I have improved this by communicating more with the colleague interns,
information deamination, interviewees and opinion shapers as well as being
encouraged by my industrial supervisor.

Work Effectively & Efficiency

My main focus was how to work effectively and efficiency. I have achieved this
during my attachment period by working and using a to-do list and a diary. The to-do-
list existed of work that needed to be done first and had more priority than other daily
tasks while the diary consisted of the tasks done and those pending to be done in
future.

Accounting skills
The accounting and financial knowledge that I had acquired enabled to perform my
work without any constrain on duties such as procumbent, stock taking and leave
days calculation using ISOFT, pastel and Google spread sheets.

Leadership Skills
Managers require leadership skill to be able to carry out his/her managerial activities
efficiently and effectively. Some of these skills are; planning, directing, coordinating,
organizing and controlling the activities within their line of activities as well as
influencing others to achieve the organizations objective.

Planning
This is a way of focusing on what is required in term of personnel in a foreseeable
future. This involve planning on the staffing and ensuring that the organization has the
right pull of staff and placing them in line to their specification as well as monitoring
the activities to ensure there is effectiveness.
Emergency management
These are situations which occur unexpected and same requires great knowledge and
skills to manage them in orderly manner without causing further destruction or
escalating problem to the entire system.

Conceptual skills
This relates to the abilities on a manager to think in abstract. Abstract means creating
ideas from nothing. Abstract can also be stated that the ability to see opportunities that
others are unable to see. A manager should be able to foresee any anticipated increase
in costing, new opportunities in the market and well the required skills for the task
ahead, thus take a collective measure in advance.

2.4 Profile of skills and competencies gained/acquired

Result focus
This is the ability whereby one is result oriented for achieving and even exceeding the
set target against the recommended standard of excellence. This is about creating an
attitude of committing and focuses on continuous improvement on both internal and
external service delivery.

Professionalism
This is the ability of doing or acting on issues in a manner that confirm with the set
procedures, it also Intel thinking carefully about the likely effects on others as a
result of your words, action, appearance and mode of behavior. Professional is all
about selecting the right word and actions most likely to have desired effect on the
group or individual in question.

Analytical Skill
This is the ability to visualize, articulate and solving both complex and uncomplicated
problem and concepts and make decisions that are rational base on all available
information and facts particularly in disciplinary process

Departmental cost management

This is the ability of broad understanding of financial management practices and
other quantitative information to ensure decisions on finance are responsible and
based on the budget allocated to your dement.

Be more initiative
Creativity is what differentiates an employee from a better employee. When I joined
National Council for Population and Development I had the urge to be a better
employee and I immediately knew that to achieve this I had to be more adventurous,
more inventive and more original. After a continuous struggle, I overcame all the
retrogressive odds and secured a bit for myself. I though did not ignore other bits as
what the future may hold for me might be different.

Project management
This involves designing, implementing and managing projects to a successful
conclusion. It also paramount to establishment of accountability, time needed,
timeline and goals to be achieved

2.5 Observation and Critiques

Observations
The National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) enjoys government
patronage. It was established in 1982 as a department in the then office of the Vice
President and Ministry of Home Affairs. Its role is mainly to advice on all matters
pertaining to population. NCPD’s mandate is further enhanced under Sessional Paper
No. 4 of 1984 on Population Policy Guidelines, and was later revised, to form the
backbone of Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2000 on National Population Policy for
Sustainable Development. The organization offices are situated at Chancery Building,
4th floor along valley Road in upper hill suburb of Nairobi,

The National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD) was
established as a Semi Government Autonomous Agency (SAGA) through Legal
Notice No. 120 contained in the Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 68 of 29th October,
2004. Through legal notice No. 172 contained in Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 152,
dated 25th November 2011, the organization has since reverted back to its original
name, the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) as a public
entity, with the following mandates to;

The organization is managed in accordance with the prevailing regulation and s

funded by national treasury

Critiques
Since the organization is a government institution most departmental heads work hard
to outshine others through pleasing the director by not following the laydown policies
as well government regulations. This has resulted to lack of proper communication,
poor interpersonal relationship as some of staffs feel alienated as such they develop
boredom in their day to day operation. There is no team building initiative such as
parties, retreat to examine what it has been achieved over the company calendar year,
free engagement forum for staff to share their personal experience, ideas and
appreciation of team work success.

Some of departmental functions are not well managed as there is no clear separation
or role. Despite the policy being well articulated on roles and function of various
departments, there is greatly violation of this document whereby responsibility meant
for one department are sometimes overlapped and be directed or addressed to wrong
person or department which end up creating conflict among the department and
individuals. There bureaucracy in decision making as the managers has a tradition of
not making the final decision on any matters without waiting the input of the senior
government officials and whatever they suggest it is enforced without further
deliberation on it.

2.6 Strategy for utilization of contacts established during attachment

During my attachment period I was involved in dealing with both internal and
external customers, such as financial managers, operations manager, organization
lawyers, and Human resource managers of the esteem customers as well as meeting
with some of the researchers and apprentices. All these contacts was very essential to
the development of my career, they advised me on how to advance in my career and
encouraged me to pursue degree in recording and Archive Management and other
related field. I sincerely acquired knowledge and skill which will be beneficial to my
future academic advancement having known what entail in practicing recording and
archive function.

SECTION THREE
SUMMERY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This section highlights the summery of the observation made, conclusion and possible
recommendations during my attachment period.

3.1 Summery
In National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) Record and Archive
department deals with lots of work involving logistics, strategizing and handling
information on daily basis, being a semi- government institution one will anticipate
high rate of document movement which has to be managed in accordance with
protection of information Act to avoid nformaton endng . Since all company activities
are centralized whereby all staff affair ranging from leaves, payroll disciplinary
management etc. has to be managed from the head office, this hips a lot of backlog to
human resource who does not have assistance. This ends up to lack of consistence and
efficient in the department in staff administering.

Human resource department is headed by Human resource manager. However there is

a correlation between Human resource department and operation department as they
share the same office and most of the daily activities are interrelated in one way or
other. In the absence of Human resource manager, operation manager can deputize
on behalf of him. There was no prejudice for the attachee, as I was performing the
same duties as that of human resource manager and other officers with the same
authority like any other management staff. Most activities are managed in line with
Employment Act 2007 as well as lobour laws and the company policy with has
heavily borrowed from this statutes

3.2 Conclusion
At first the attachment period was not enjoyable since I had to familiarize with both
workmates and the working environment. As time went by, it turned out to be very
fruitful. I gained experience and skills which is required in record keeping. The eight
weeks that I spent in carrying out my industrial attachment at National Council for
Population and Development (NCPD) were very crucial in my career advancement as
I learnt lots management duties.

It was an absolute worthwhile experience working at the National Council for

Population and Development (NCPD). The friendly welcoming staff and the space
they have created for a trainee/intern provided me with ample opportunities to learn
and know myself as a worker. This experience brought out my strength and also the
areas I that need to improvise. It added more confidence to my professional approach,
built a stronger positive attitude and taught me how to work in team as a player. The
primary objective of an internship is to gather a real life working experience and put
their theoretical knowledge in practice. I am grateful to the entire team of
management of the organization for their unprecedented support to make my working
experience truly rewarding. Especially working in this department made me realize
my competencies and level of understanding regarding the record management. On
completion of this internship period, I came to know about the importance of proper
record keeping and the role of store keepers, Training Executive, Senior Supervisors
and senior managers in an organization.

As an intern, though I had a limited space to work to avoid overstating my mandates, I

still managed to grab plentiful of experiences. I made the best of every opportunity I
was given and made the utmost use of my abilities and knowledge to fulfill all my
responsibilities. I could implement my academic skills into practice and my efforts
were highly acknowledged. There is however some gap between our theoretical
knowledge and real life practice, yet the managerial level staff members is quite open
towards upgrading current approach, which was extremely motivating.

Hence, I can sum up by saying that my internship experience was a milestone to my

academic and professional experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenges that came
along every single day. I could also bring some minor improvisations during my
internship which were able to leave their marks. These lessons that I have learned will
be a valuable one for my future endeavors as well.

3.3 Recommendations
The major problems that are currently facing The National Council for Population and
Development (NCPD) and Documentation Service require a quick reaction of
solutions and some more changes implemented to ensure that the objectives and goals
are achieved. Some of the recommendations are as outlined below.

Document management system

Currently system of documentation and file management is not well organized,
whereby documents are received by anybody with no proper record of tracing who
handled what document or file and for what purpose. This has resulted to lose of
valuable documents and even file. I therefore recommend an improved system by
providing logs of the movement of documents and file. This logs need to be checked
periodically to see if they are meeting the intended purpose. It also recommended the
implementation of electronic records management system which will facilitate the
effectiveness of storage and retrieval of the kept documents and information.

Financing and Staffing

It is important to allocate and provide more resources as well as adequate staff to the
departments of this organization, and in particular the repository section, where staff
are few in number. For the purpose of submission of this report, and to my own
knowledge of understanding, I could propose an allocation of about three staff at the
minimum.

Electronic Document Management System

Digitization of records may be an important aspect in the organization and it is good
to strongly support it by all means and allocate much more resources, both human and
finances because many of the records are in a poor condition, they keep on
deteriorating with time and once measures are managed to control them especially
conservation measures like digitization, then it means that at least a duplicate of the
same is left behind for the users and reference.

Shelves
When also considering the conditions of shelves, it may be a good suggestion to
renovate and repair especially the mobile shelves where some of the locks and rollers
are no longer functioning It is good to have a soft copy of the shelve guide, so that
when the current exercise of shelf reorganization goes on, the staff will keep on
adjusting the locations and codes.

Staff Behavior
The habit of eating and drinking inside and especially in places where records are
stored should be prohibited to ensure that biological factors of deterioration are
controlled.
Finally it may also be a good thought to talk about the renovation of the building
inside and outside to provide more security to the staff and the information resources
as well as machines. This may include inspection and surveillance of both staff and
users when entering and leaving the premise to be sure that they do not walk inside
with unwanted objects and machines that do not belong to the office.