Investing in Skills Development: Giving your Business the Upper Hand
This year, skills building remains high on the corporate agenda as the revised Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Codes now stipulates that skills development is a priority element.
By complying, businesses are able to earn points and rebates which includes recovering up to 20% of the mandatory grant from Skills Development Levies which is paid to SARS each year. But that’s not all.
Apart from earning financial rebates, skills development plans can give companies competitive advantage. For example, businesses that identify development requirements are more equipped to address skills gaps and shortages, as well as pinpoint what talent they need in order to achieve their business objectives.
Skills development is therefore an investment which offers immense value to both companies and their employees. Furthermore, how a company approaches skills development is an opportunity to entrench a culture of learning, growth and development as well as attract hot new talent.
As the deadline to submit Workplace Skills Plans (WSP) and Annual Training Reports (ATR) draws closer, a number of businesses are looking at how they can better contribute to skills development.
Because skills development activities can be costly for businesses (both in time and money), many are turning to Learnership programmes to rive skills development. Learnerships are a form of vocational education which links structured learning with work experience to obtain registered qualifications.
Learnership training ensures that employees of a company are able to develop critical skills mostly on the job, avoiding unnecessary liabilities.
Learnership training ensures that employees of a company are able to develop critical skills mostly on the job, avoiding unnecessary liabilities.