Workplace Skills Plans and the state of the industry

Recently the Services Seta CEO Ivor Blumenthal addressed stakeholders at a series of national roadshows. He stated that he is not so happy about the Workplace Skills Plans (WSPs) that his Seta receives from employers in their sector.

“95% of WSPs we receive are fraudulent, and the majority are prepared by external SDFs,” says Blumenthal.

Well I think that the obvious key issue here is the prevailing perspective on the development of the WSP's. Many levy payers ultimately treat this as a compliance led exercise rather than a critical reason to conduct a thorough annual training and performance needs analysis for the organisation. According to Marius Meyer and others South African lacks key expertise in evaluating training and performance needs at organisational and local level, relegating it to a reactive role striving to get the levies back in the form of their grant.

The structure, composition and nature of the WSP and the needs analysis process leading to its development must be organisataionally focused, yet take cognisance of staff development and broader sectoral skills needs. To do a little extra benefits the sector and its skills pool, which is always a good thing.

South African corporate structure by and large still does not acknowledge the role of training and performance as a key strategic lever for business performance. We lag behind leading OECED states.

The USA by contrast has long recognised the need for director or executive level training and performance representation, with directors of learning and performance commonly held positions throughout corporate organisations. Interestingly these executives spend a significant amount of time focusing on the start and end of the training and development process. The needs analysis and return-on-investment (ROI) components whilst project managing the design, procurement and delivery of learning and performance interventions.

The legalistic approach by the SETA's as well as the corporatist lack of vision certainly complicates the issue behind the validity and the actual development of the content. As Ivor points out either low-skill level employees or external consultants fulfil this role. The consultants generally lack insight into the business performance needs and although can provide positive insights into the opportunities presented by levy compliance they often mislead or understate the commitment to monitoring and managing training performance for their clients.

A corporate has to have a clearly defined skills development policy, highlighting the key needs analysis procedures and associated templates and tools. In addition HR or Training Managers should include skills planning expertise as key performance indicators for remuneration, recognition and reward purposes.

Lastly the SETA WSP templates and reporting forms need detailed revision and should not just cover key labour market reporting statistical fields but be more formative and be a resource for conducting needs analyses.

That would benefit the levy payers and their employees to a far greater degree.