Skills Grants and Seta’s – Why Bother?

Whenever I mention words like Skills Development Levies, Discretionary Grants and SETA’s, most people roll their eyes or have a confused look on their face. In my experience, employers will pay their skills levies because they are obligated to do so, but that is usually where their involvement with SETA’s end. The reason – most employers feel that compiling and submitting reports and managing SETA grants are just too much of a hassle and a waste of time, with little or no rewards.

Why should employers bother?

As I discussed in one of my earlier blogs, “The Importance of Employee Development in the Time of Corona”, employers should be investing in employee development to create agile companies that are able to thrive and stay in the game in this current volatile economy.

What about the costs?

The reality is that most employers do not have the luxury of a training budget or the time or resources to train their own employees. The solution: partnering with the SETA’s and making use of Mandatory and Discretionary Grants to finance much needed training programmes.

What are Mandatory and a Discretionary Grants and how do they work?

Mandatory Grants are only applicable to certain employers who are obligated to pay a monthly Skills Development Levy and who submit a WSP (Workplace Skills Plan) and an ATR (Annual Training Report) to their relevant SETAs annually. Grant payments are calculated as 20% of the total skills levies paid for the previous training year. I could argue that not claiming this grant back is literally a waste of money.  

Discretionary Grants are available to all employers who submit the above-mentioned Annual Training Reports to the SETAs, whether you are contributing Skills Development Levies or not. Employers need to apply for Discretionary Grants for specific types of Accredited Training Programmes, including Skills Programmes, Internships, Work Experience, Learnerships, etc. The value of each grant will normally cover most, if not all, of the costs incurred in sending an employee on a specific accredited training programme. In other words, employees are trained and developed, with surprisingly little cost to the employer. It almost sounds too good to be true.    

What about the time and hassle? At LE Skills, we act as your Skills Development Facilitator and take care of all the required tasks, including liaising with SETA’s, compiling and submission of all required reports and documents, and managing and implementation of all training programmes. If you would like more information on how we can assist you with SETA Grant Management, please contact us.

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MiekieS

LE Skills Division Partner

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