Maximise the skills development component of your B-BBEE scorecard before financial year-end

The next three months are a mad dash to financial year-end for many businesses – either December or February – and with just weeks to go, ensuring all skills development measures are in place to maximise B-BBEE scorecard points looms large for finance and human resources heads.

“Skills development is one of the most critical and rewarding scorecard elements, contributing at least 25 points – but 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,” says Anton Visser, chief operations officer of SA Business School.

“If you have done your internal audit and you’re coming up short on skills development points, then skills programmes are in incredibly effective solution to get your L&D [learning & development] investment and score back on track – and your people upskilled and trained – before year-end.”

What is a skills programme?

Arising directly out of learnerships, skills programmes are shorter and highly focused, allowing businesses to upskill their people in targeted development efforts. These short programmes are usually a few days in duration, and the unit standards are taken from the various modules within an existing learnership programme.

A skills programme is made up of a set of unit standards that are combined together to form a short course that also bears credits on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) toward a qualification. They are designed as an occupationally based, short-term learning programme.

A skills programme is compiled by the employer, after a particular skills need has been identified as part of the workplace skills planning process. The programme will then be registered with the relevant Sector Education & Training Authority (SETA) and is also certified through the NQF-based accreditation route.

One of the key benefits of a skills programme is that employers and training providers are able to structure a programme that meets the specific skills needs of the employer and employees, for a particular skill. A learner can learn a specific skill set based on a group of unit standards, in a matter of days or weeks depending on the number of unit standards covered, instead of having to complete an entire qualification – as in the case of a learnership, which 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, skills programmes are offered by employers or businesses, they earn points that go toward the B-BBEE score of the business, and they are available to both employed and unemployed learners.

As your workforce develops and your people need to diversify their skills sets, skills programmes are invaluable tools in providing short, focused learning interventions to close identified skills gaps – for example, finance for non-finance managers, customer service, conflict management, change management, team management, business ethics and so on.

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 B-BBEE 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.
• Complement and augment your other training initiatives with specific short courses, and develop a culture of ongoing learning.

“In leveraging the full benefit of skills programmes, work with a professional training partner that delivers training which is academically rigorous, practically relevant and quality assured. Remember that skills development carries significant weight (20–25 points) on the B-BBEE scorecard; an accredited training provider can help ensure you maximise the available points through properly structured programmes registered with relevant SETAs and follow recognised frameworks,” explains Visser.

“Professional training providers also understand the verification requirements and will provide all the proper documentation needed for B-BBEE verification to 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, are a strategic investment that boosts your B-BBEE rating, maximises return on investment and builds a skilled, competitive workforce,” he concludes.

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