Companies should be prioritizing Skills Development within their organisations for a variety of reasons and in brief, we will show you why.
- WSPs (Workplace Skills Plans) help you plan ahead to understand the training needs of your workforce. You outline the needs of your organisation over the next 12 months, identify the possible training interventions that would address these needs, and plan for the implementation thereof.
- ATRs (Annual Training Reports) are exactly what the words imply. It’s a report on the training you have completed in the prior year.
By completing these reports your company will:
- recover some of the money you have spent on training and development costs. These are Mandatory Grants allocated from Skills Development Levies you would have paid to SARS.
- be in a position to apply for Discretionary Grants from your SETA and these can assist you to roll out Learnerships, Internships, or Skills Programmes that you have planned for in your WSP.
By not completing these annual reports, you are adversely affected because you will not earn Skills Development points on your B-BBEE scorecard and you lose your Mandatory Grants.
In order to get your Return on Investment (ROI) for the efforts you put in, you need to make sure that you have a competent employee that is well versed in the process. These staff members are generally qualified as Skills Development Facilitators (SDF). Our advice is to make one of two decisions:
- Equip your HR team with the necessary and vital skills by enrolling them in a Skills Development Facilitator short course that is accredited by the ETDP SETA; or
- Make sure to employ a consultant who has the necessary qualifications to do so.
From the two choices, we strongly believe that developing your internal staff is the ultimate solution. Being part of your organisation, they are going to be in a good position to help advise you on the training needs and be best placed to help you gain all the benefits. The WSPs should be submitted annually.
Join us now with our expert B-BBEE, Skills Development and CSR facilitator, Ms Mashadi Monaledi who will take you and your team through the short, accredited course. Start now and enroll your team members in the coming programme and be ready for your 2023 submissions.