BUSINESS AND TRAINING
47
Companies are throwing
away billions every year
Approximately 96% of skills development levy (SDL) companies
fail to claim their Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual
Training Report (ATR) mandatory grants from their relevant
SETAs, resulting in billions of rands in unnecessary losses to the
private sector annually.
By Darren Parker at Sanders Consult
The main reason for these appalling figures —
which were announced during the TETA WSP/ATR
Feedback Roadshow in April 2017 — is that many
companies simply do not know that they can claim
back, nor how to go about doing so. any skills points on their BEE scorecards. Furthermore,
when companies are fully compliant and choose to
invest in training, they not only positively affect their own
enterprise, but their industry as a whole, and even the
economy at large.
Companies appear to be largely ignorant to the fact
that they can claim back up to 20% of their annual
expenditure on SDLs, which are calculated at 1% of the
company’s payroll each month. For companies to qualify
for claiming the mandatory grant, three simple things
need to be in place. A lack of training negatively influences productivity,
marketability, competitiveness, community development,
workforce capability, industry skills availability and so on,
which in turn pushes up costs, which naturally affects
profits and ultimately affects the entire economy.
First, the company must have a registered skills
development facilitator (SDF), which may be internal or
external to the company.
Second, the company must then submit its WSP
(detailing the identified training gaps and the training
plans for the year ahead) and its ATR (detailing the
training conducted in the previous year).
Lastly, the company must have its SDL up to date.
However, qualifying for the mandatory grant is not the
only benefit of being fully compliant. Companies who
do not submit their WSPs and ATRs cannot receive
The more skilled people are, the more employable they
are. The more people are employed, the more buying
power they have. The more buying power people have,
the greater the income for businesses. And so, the
economy grows. Everyone wins. PA
Companies simply
do not know that
they can claim back,
nor how to go
about doing so.
Three Engineers
There are three engineers in a car going for a drive. The first is a mechanical engineer, the
second an electronics engineer and the third is a software engineer.
Fortunately, the mechanical engineer is driving because the brakes fail as they are going
downhill. The mechanical engineer eventually brings the car safely to a halt and gets out to
examine the hydraulic systems. The electronics engineer gets out and checks the body computer,
ABS system and the power train CAN bus. The software engineer stays in the car and when
queried about it says that they should all just get back in the car and see if it happens again!
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
March 2018 Volume 24 I Number 1