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Table of Contents
Getting Started
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What is a learnership?
Levy Questions
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Who must pay the levy?
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How does an employer register for the levy?
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Are any employers exempt from paying the levy?
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To whom are levies payable?
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How are levies payable?
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What amount is payable?
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By when is the levy payable?
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Is there any interest and penalty incurred for late or non-payment?
Training
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Why is it important for a company to use Education and Training Quality Assurance (ETQA) accredited and/or registered providers?
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Does this mean that employers will not be able to claim for employees sent overseas for training?
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How will workplace assessment be conducted if an organisation uses only external providers?
Accreditation
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Must internal training departments also be accredited by the ETQA?
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For which different kinds of registered providers can the organisation make a claim for training completed?
Workplace Skills Plan
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What is the purpose of a Workplace Skills Plan?
Annual Training Report
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What is an Annual Training Report?
Questions and Answers:
Getting Started
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Q: What is a learnership?
A:
A learnership is a structured programme, of necessary training and essential
practice, designed to take place over the period of one year. It is structured
in that it combines elements of education and training, with working
experience. At the end of the learnership, learners have the opportunity of
being assessed and certificated as competent, at a level comparable with
people working on a full-time and permanent basis in an Industry.
A learnership is a fixed-term agreement between employer and learner
(employee) and is possibly the only fixed-term agreement that does not give
rise to any expectation of ongoing employment at the end of the learnership in
the case of Section 18.2 Learners (unemployed or pre-employed).
The principle benefit of a learnership is that the employer has the benefit of
receiving a Learnership Grant from ESETA, which will cover part or all of the
costs of on-the-job training and education, any external training and
education, assessments and also, where the learner is a new employee and not
an existing employee, a Wage Subsidy.
The reason that an industry would be prepared to fund a learnership in a
particular company is that where this type of development occurs, the entire
industry benefits from a skills level upliftment and also pre-qualified pools
of skilled people (determined by industry demand) become available for
employment in jobs for which they have been trained in, and assessed as
competent, for.
Levy Questions
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Q: Who must pay the levy?
A:
Payment towards the levy grant scheme is legislated in terms of the
Skills Development Levies Act, 1999. Under this act every employer in South Africa
who;
must register with SARS to pay the Skills Development Levy (SDL).
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Q: How does an employer register for the levy?
A:
Every employer who is liable to pay the levy must register for the payment of
the levy with SARS by completing a registration
form. (Form SDL 101 available from all SARS offices).
In order to register the employer must:
- Obtain a registration form (SDL 101) from any SARS office, if not
received by mail,
- Choose from a list of registered Energy Sector Education and Training
Authorities (ESETA) as indicated in the ESETA classification guide provided
with the registration form, the one ESETA most representative of your
activities.
- Choose a Standard Industry Classification (SIC) from
the ESETA classification guide which most accurately describes the nature of
your business.
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Q: Are any employers exempt from paying the levy?
A:
Yes. The exemptions are applicable if certain provisions are met. Application
for such exemptions is contained in the SDL 101 form, issued by the
Commissioner of SARS, who will ultimately adjudicate whether you qualify for
exemption or not.
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Q: To whom are levies payable?
A:
Levies are payable to SARS, which acts as a
collecting agency for the Department of Labour
and the SETAs.
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Q: How are levies payable?
A:
Each month SARS will provide all registered
employers with a "Return for Remittance" form (SDL 201), which enables you to
calculate the amount payable and effect payment.
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Q: What amount is payable?
A:
The amount payable will be calculated as follows:
From 1 April 2001 onwards - 1% of the total amount of remuneration paid to
employees. Any prescribed exclusions that are not leviable are subtracted from
the total remuneration.
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Q: By when is the levy payable?
A:
The levy must be paid over to SARS (after
registration), not later than SEVEN
days after the end of the month in respect of which the levy is payable, under
cover of a SDL 201 return form.
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Q: Is there any interest and penalty incurred for late or non-payment?
A:
SARS will impose both interest and penalties for
late or non-payment of levies.
Training
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Q: Why is it important for a company to use Education and Training Quality Assurance (ETQA) accredited and/or registered providers?
A:
According to the Skills Development Act organisations will only be able to
claim grants on the basis of National Qualification
Framework (NQF) registered
unit standards and
qualifications. While there may be a grace period while the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs)
and South African Qualifications Authority
(SAQA)
get established, in future, organisations will only be able to register claims
if they make use of accredited and/or registered providers.
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Q: Does this mean that employers will not be able to claim for employees sent overseas for training?
A:
Any training towards unit standards and qualifications will be
eligible. Training not associated with credits for unit standards and towards
qualifications will not be eligible for grant funds.
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Q: How will workplace assessment be conducted if an organisation uses only external providers?
A:
Organisations will have to ensure that adequate provision is made for the
capacity to conduct assessment when external providers are employed to do
training in organisations. The external provider will have to assume full
accountability for all aspects of training including that of quality
assurance.
Accreditation
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Q: Must internal training departments also be accredited by the ETQA?
A:
Yes, if the company intends to claim back for the training provided.
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Q: For which different kinds of registered providers can the organisation make a claim for training completed?
A:
There are four kinds of recognised providers for which claims will be
recognised;
- Internal education and training providers, such as human resources or
training and development departments.
- External education and training providers, such as training companies and
consultancies.
- Education Training Quality Assurance providers, who will be responsible
for assessing the quality of training, as well as the moderation of learnerships and qualifications.
- Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)
providers, who will be responsible
for assessing and moderating applications for qualifications based on prior
learning.
Workplace Skills Plan
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Q: What is the purpose of a Workplace Skills Plan?
A:
There is interaction between management and employees as they start to discuss
skills in the workplace. Skills as well as shortfalls are identified and
discussed in the workplace.
Management starts to discuss the companies' goals with employees who in turn
commit to the process of achieving these goals. Management gets the
opportunity to discover talent as well as skills that they did know that they
had.
Annual Training Report
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Q: What is an Annual Training Report?
A:
This report consists of all attendance registers, proof of expenditure,
training provider used in this report the ESETA can establish whether training
was done or is in the process of being done. This report will allow the ESETA
to compensate the employer for money spent when implementing the Workplace
Skills Plan for the training that you have funded for your staff.
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