Skills development is a vital aspect of BEE planning

“Our company falls under the generic BEE codes. As we are 51% black-owned, but under R50m turnover, we have not undergone BEE verification, but relied on a signed BEE affidavit confirming that we are an automatic level 2 B-BBEE contributor. Now it appears we may exceed the R50m mark this year and have to verify as a Generic Enterprise. As HR manager I have now been tasked with getting our skills development planning in place should we need to verify. Where do I start?”

The Skills Development Element of the generic BEE scorecard is a vital element and has a big impact on the overall score an enterprise will achieve. Additionally, it is also a “priority element”, which means that if the sub-minimum requirement of 40% for the Skills Development Element is not met, an enterprise can further be discounted a level.

That said, with proper planning and preparation, the Skills Development Element need not be an impossible task and, if correctly done, can not only help your enterprise achieve a good score, but also contribute significantly towards the skills development of employees and others in your organisation.

But timely planning and budgeting are vital. By planning and understanding the various targets you will need to meet under the Skills Development Element, you will be able to identify which of your employees should obtain training and allow enough time for them to receive training.

Remember that with employees, you can also include their salary cost as part of the training costs, making it worthwhile to invest in training of your staff.

Where you also choose to support training of learners not in your employ, or wish to participate in the Youth Unemployment Service (YES) initiative, these options also need to be identified early and planned for, taking into account your specific targets and demographical needs.

What this means is that the Skills Development Element can be expensive and take time for you to achieve, as it will require timeous expenditure with concomitant training results needed to claim points on your scorecard.

With planning and calculating your projected targets, followed by learner and training selection early in your financial year, you can spread out training costs over the year and avoid the situation of having a big capital spike at the last minute. Also remember that you need to have submitted a workplace skills plan (WSP) as well as an Annual Training Report (ATR) to claim points under the Skills Development Element.

As a rule, no points may be awarded in the event that a measured entity failed to meet the deadline for WSP and ATR submission.

Here again, planning and ensuring that your WSP and ATR are in place are vital to ensuring you are ready to claim those points you have planned for.

The Skills Development Element can be quite technical in understanding the scope of the different targets, demographic profiles and learning matrices that all need to be considered.

It may be advisable to enlist the help of a BEE or skills development expert to help you understand your requirements and get your planning under way.

From there you should then be able to manage and implement your plan.

Shaun Mathie is an attorney with Drake Flemmer & Orsmond Attorneys. He can be contacted on 043-722-4210.