Why Is It Important For South African Companies To Submit Their Workplace Skills Plan And Annual Training Report Each Year?

The Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 and the Skills Development Levy Act 9 of 1999 were imposed in South Africa to encourage learning and development within South African companies. These Acts benefit not only the learners and/or employees in companies but also the company itself. With higher educated and more developed employees, a company has much more to offer concerning service delivery and workmanship, leading to higher productivity, being the preferred service provider and higher profitability.

Companies with a payroll of more than R500 000 per annum are required by the Skills Development Levies Act to pay Skills Development Levies (SDL) of 1% of their payroll by the 7^th of each month.

The SDL paid by companies to SARS is distributed to various stakeholders, governing bodies, or authorities. 80% of the SDL paid is allocated to the relevant SETA, and 20% to the National Skills Fund, also referred to as the NSF.

One of the benefits of submitting a successful Workplace Skills Plan and an Annual Training Report each year, is that the company can claim back 20% of their SDL monies paid which is referred to as a Mandatory Grant. This means you can get money back to allocate and assist with training expenses.

By compiling a Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) each year, a company includes identified training courses and a budget for training in the company’s planning for the year ahead, which enables companies to have funds and time available to train employees or have them trained.

The Annual Training Report (ATR) is a report compiled for training that employees of the company did for the relevant SETA’s 12-month period before the submission date.

There are many registered Sector Education Training Authorities (SETA’s) in South Africa. Each SETA has its own scope of application; for instance, AGRI Seta is the SETA under which most agricultural companies resort.

Each SETA is responsible for their own industry’s training and development, ensuring that employees in their respective industries receive training and learning opportunities while encouraging companies to initiate these learning and training opportunities by receiving assistance from the SETA as the Mandatory Grant and the possibility of a Discretionary Grant.

With the submission of the WSP and ATR each year, the SETA’s receives valuable information from companies which enables them to identify the scares and critical skills in each sector and address those with the compilation of a Sector Skills Plan, also referred to as an SSP to promote learning and development in those skills in the relevant sector by availing money as Discretionary Grants.

SETA’s encourages companies to apply for Discretionary Grants from the SETA’s assisting employees/learners to obtain and develop the skills in the specific sector to address the shortage or scarcity of the skills and/or qualified workmanship.

Discretionary Grants (DG’s) are exactly what the words say. The funding allocation is at the discretion of the SETA. Companies can apply for DG’s, which the relevant SETA will evaluate to check if the application is in line with their SSP and if all the requirements are met. For instance, is the company’s SDL up to date, was their WSP/ATR Submission successful and approved by the SETA? The approval of a DG is solely based on the discretion of the relevant SETA. The Discretionary Grants can be up to 49.5% of the SDL that was paid by the company but may be less than the percentage approval, which is also at the SETA’s discretion.

Last but not least, companies that need to be BEE compliant or choose to be BEE compliant and fall within their Industry’s Qualifying Small Enterprise Sector or Generic Sector will need to have a successful WSP/ATR Submission to qualify for the Skills element’s points for their BEE verification. Suppose the company cannot provide an Approval Letter, Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report to the BEE Verification Agency. In that case, they will lose the Skills Element’s points which will negatively impact the company’s BEE level.

In conclusion, submitting your Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report is beneficial to a company as you get money back as your Mandatory Grant (20% of your SDL). You can apply for Discretionary Grants, where more money is made available to companies to train and develop employees/learners, and the company will qualify for the Skills Element’s points for BEE Verification.

Need assistance with submitting your Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report? Contact your nearest SEESA Skills Development Facilitator for expert advice. Alternatively, leave your details on our website, and a SEESA representative will contact you.

About The Author:

Monique Jansen van Vuuren joined SEESA on 12 March 2012 and transferred to SEESA Cape Town in January 2022 to the position of Skills Development Facilitator. She completed a certificate in Labour Relations Management and gained a lot of experience in the products that SEESA has to offer as she was a Head Administrative Official in a multi-product office for over nine years.

Resources: