These practical tips will help you submit a top quality Workplace Skills Plan and an Annual Training Report.

Central to the SETA Skills submission process, towards the end of each financial year, every South African organisation that submitted a Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) is required to submit an Annual Training Report (ATR). This year’s ATR is due on 30 April 2022.

The Report is intended to reflect the education, training and development activities of the organisation that were implemented during the financial year in question. These two reports are submitted as one document covering the skills process within an organisation.

What is a WSP and an ATR?

A WSP is a plan to address the training and development needs in the workplace based on the skills needed within an organisation, describing the range of skills interventions that an organisation will address and implement.

The Annual Training Report (ATR) is a follow-up on the WSP, as it reports on the education and training interventions that were delivered in the previous year. Basically, this report also consists of all training attendance registers, proof of expenditure and training providers used.

Who must submit a WSP and ATR?

All companies who pay salaries of more than R500 000.00 per year should be registered to pay Skills Development Levies (SDL).

How does one submit a WSP and ATR?

Sadly, compiling and submitting the WSP has become a last-minute activity in companies. As a result, little thought is given to what the company needs because it’s often left until the last minute, resulting in important things being forgotten. When points are not included in the Report, there is a belief that they can always be included in the next year’s report but, unfortunately, the same thing happens the next year.

Compiling the ATR should however start long before submission time as companies need to make their WSP fit with their training needs instead of starting with their B-BEEE requirements. It’s therefore important to decide what crucial training is needed and then look at B-BEEE requirements. 

Here, then, are some tips to assist you with the submission of your WSP.

First, you need to decide what the most important training is that needs to be done to upskill and uplift your workforce rather than treat this as a B-BEEE points exercise.

Start off by planning to train the employees that are a priority, where the biggest need lies. Normally training plans will be done for senior management first and then for the rest of the employees. It is important to train the employees that are most needed yet unskilled. The majority of unskilled employees can make such a huge impact on the company’s growth if they are upskilled and competent in the workplace; these are your cleaners and blue-collar workers. In a sense, ignoring them is not helpful as what little budget there is left after all management has gone on training is not sufficient for ABET/AET and so forth, and these staff members end up doing training or short courses that haven’t been accredited and have no impact. 

Your WSP should therefore be the starting point of planning for training. Companies tend to train for what will give them the best and easiest BBBEE points but not what skills are needed in the company. They then try to make their BBBEE strategy work with their Workplace Skills Plan.

How to successfully submit your WSP and ATR submission in five simple steps:

• Do a skills audit to identify training needs;
• Include training that can meet multiple compliance requirements;
• Include training that is aligned to your business strategy;
• Be specific about what you include in your plan; and
• Start your online submission early.

By spending time establishing your training needs and requirements and then seeing how these fit into your WSP, you will be able to compile a high quality WSP and ATR.

Marinda Clack is an Expert Training and Development Advisor at Triple E Training.