Top tips to consider: WSPs and ATRs deadline looming
Now that skills development is one of three priority pillars of Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE), Workplace Skills Plans are more important for companies than ever before. As we previously wrote in our article Investing in Skills Development: Giving your Business the Upper Hand, complying with skills development allows companies to earn points and certain tax rebates. While failure to comply will result in various penalties (including dropping a level on your B-BBEE scorecard) which inevitably jeopardises the success of any locally-operating business.
Skills development is critical for economic growth and social development in South Africa – a country with one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world. In sight of this, many companies are driving skills development and transformation by incorporating Learnership programmes into their WSPs. One significant benefit of Learnership training is that employees are able to develop industry-specific skills and earn a qualification while on the job thus eliminating the need to take time off.
Want to incorporate Learnerships into your WSP? Browse our range of NQF-accredited Learnership training courses. Remember, the deadline for submitting your WSP is the 28th of April 2017. To help you, we’ve put together some useful tips on what your WSP should focus on:
- A skills audit: this helps you paint a picture of current talent and the talent you need to achieve your business goals.
- Team involvement: a truly successful company relies on the willingness, attitude and dedication of its employees. Opting for transparency and inclusivity is one way of developing loyal employees.
- Individual plans: use these to manage growth and ensure that individual team members are aware of what is expected of them.
- Measuring success: viewing your Annual Training Report (ATR) as a tool to reflect the value of the training you have offered over the last year can help you monitor progress, identify shortcomings and address challenges that need overcoming.