Anton Visser | Chief Operations Officer | SA Business School | mail me |
The next three months create a mad dash to financial year-end for many businesses. Either December or February deadlines now approach quickly. With just weeks to go, finance and HR heads face mounting pressure. They must ensure all skills development measures are in place to maximise B-BBEE scorecard points.
Skills Development remains one of the most critical and rewarding scorecard elements and contributes at least 25 points. However, achieving these targets isn’t always easy. Missing key incentives because you missed the skills development targets can cost your business more than you realise.
If you have done your internal audit and you’re coming up short on skills development points, then skills programmes offer an incredibly effective solution. They help you get your L&D investment and score back on track before year-end. They also ensure your people are upskilled and trained.
What is a skills programme?
- Skills programmes arise directly out of learnerships and remain shorter and highly focused. They allow businesses to upskill their people in targeted development efforts. These short programmes usually run for a few days. The unit standards come from various modules within an existing learnership programme.
- A skills programme uses a set of unit standards combined to form a short course with NQF credits. It bears credits on the National Qualifications Framework towards a qualification. It is designed as an occupationally based, short-term learning programme.
- An employer compiles a skills programme after identifying a particular skills need in the workplace skills planning process. The employer then registers the programme with the relevant SETA. It is also certified through the NQF-based accreditation route.
- One key benefit of a skills programme is that employers and training providers can structure a programme that meets specific skills needs. A learner can learn a specific skill set based on a group of unit standards in a matter of days or weeks. This depends on the number of unit standards covered. It avoids completing an entire qualification, as required in a Learnership that typically takes one year or more.
- Training is offered by an accredited training provider and at the end of the course the learner receives a ‘Statement of Results’.
- Just like a learnership, employers or businesses offer skills programmes. They earn points that go towards the BBBEE score of the business. They are also available to both employed and unemployed learners.
- As your workforce develops and your people need to diversify their skill sets, skills programmes provide invaluable tools for short, focused learning interventions. They help close identified skills gaps. They also support areas such as finance for non-finance managers, customer service, conflict management, change management, team management, and business ethics.
Benefits of skills programmes
- Execute training more easily and quicker and see the impact straight away. More economical in terms of time and resources.
- Improve your BBBEE score in terms of your skills development component.
- Choose from a wide range of hard and soft skills courses, based on proven and accredited unit standards.
- Ideal solution for developing competencies in specific identified areas.
- Compliment and augment your other training initiatives with specific short courses and develop a culture of ongoing learning.
To leverage the full benefit of skills programmes, work with a training partner that delivers academically rigorous, practically relevant, quality-assured training. Remember that skills development carries significant weight, between 20 and 25 points, on the BBBEE scorecard.
An accredited training provider can help ensure you maximise the available points through properly structured programmes. These programmes are registered with relevant SETAs and follow recognised frameworks.
Professional training providers understand the verification requirements and provide all proper documentation needed for BBBEE verification. They help ensure your business can achieve maximum points while considering all tax benefits and potential grants.
Skills programmes, as part of a holistic skills development strategy, offer a strategic investment. They boost your B-BBEE rating, maximise ROI, and build a skilled, competitive workforce.