Key to the development and growth of any economy or sector of the economy is quality education and training on a sufficiently massive scale. Skills development and training is an indispensable element of this quality education and training and the need for such cannot be over emphasized. One of the primary factors attributable to the rapid growth of the East Asian economies is quality education linked to relevant skills development and training for relevant targeted sectors on a large enough scale to achieve significant impact.
South Africa still has large portions of our population who do not access to quality skills development initiatives in order to have a meaningful impact to the economy but even more importantly, to further enrich their lives in terms of growth and progress. It’s for this reason that skills development has formed a key pillar of the B-BBEE scorecard aligned with many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and is listed as a priority element to be focused on in order to not be penalized by being discounted by one B-BBEE recognition level.
B-BBEE Verification Agencies do two things during the verification of this element – 1. Verify that measured entities are complying with the Skills Development Levies Act 9 of 1999; and 2. Verify the validity of all skills development spend by measured entities that can be classified under the Learning Program Matrix of Amended Code Series 300 of the Codes of Good Practice. In order to confirm an entity is in compliance with the Skills Development Levies Act, your rating agency will peruse your EMP201 and EMPSA payments for your measurement period and compare this with your employee costs and leviable amount (based on the SDL paid) for the same period. Any significant variance found will be interrogated further.
"South Africa still has large portions of our population who do not access to quality skills development initiatives in order to have a meaningful impact to the economy but even more importantly, to further enrich their lives in terms of growth and progress."
Your B-BBEE rating agency will also request a copy of your Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report with the proof of approval thereof. This report needs to be submitted to your relevant SETA by 30 April annually before qualifying to score points on the Skills Development scorecard. The WSP/ATR contains a breakdown of the executed training for the past year as well as the planned training for the following year. Obtaining approval of your WSP/ATR from your SETA will be an important step before your verification.
Further documents requested in order to verify this element, depending on the category of training conducted, include but are not limited to:
· ID’s and employment contracts of delegates
· Dually signed learnership agreements with a clear start and end dates
· The invoice stating total cost per person
· Payslips for each month within the measurement period of the learner/ trainer
· Proof of attendance/ registration/ completion where required
· EEA1s to confirm demographics
· Proof of learnership courses being accredited with SETA (If SETA Learnership)
In order to incentivise the uptake of newly skilled people into the workforce, the Skills Development scorecard has allowed for 5 bonus-points to be scored for the number of black people absorbed at the end of a learnership programme. These programmes include internships, learnerships and apprenticeships. To score points for this indicator, be sure to pay special attention to the definition of absorption, as per Gazette No.42496. Absorption refers to securing a long-term contact of employment for the candidate either through the measured entity or the industry. Your rating agency will request evidence of such absorption, including a trainee tracking tool. This tool will be used to track which trainees have absconded, completed and who has been absorbed.
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