HRDC calls for work skills planning
Onalenna Kelebeile | Tuesday July 7, 2015 15:04
Speaking at a work-skills planning workshop here recently HRDC’s Workplace Support Services Manager, Kelesitse Maikaelelo said companies do not have proper training plans in place, but only send employees for training just to utilise the training levy.
“Before employees are sent for training there must be a plan submitted to the Council stating when the training should take place as well as expectations after training. You should not just train only to claim from the training fund,” he said. He added that with effect from April next year no company will be able to make a claim without a training plan. He added that they have observed that entities only train their employees without carrying out a work skills plan first. He noted that entities must train to enhance skills development not training with the aim of getting reimbursed.
The training plan is needed to inform the HRDC on the need for training and is viewed as a way to show commitment to training and it is also necessary because some workplaces do not follow pre-approval guidelines.
The manager highlighted that at some point, the training levy accumulated to close to P1 billion because companies were not utilising the fund and said the money ended up being forfeited by government.
He added that the forfeited funds are used to pay allowances for interns attached to levy paying entities and once absorbed as employees the money is used to pay the first three months of their salary. Part of the money has been used in other critical areas.
Maikaelelo noted that the observation in the country has been that investors bring their own workforce when they setup in Botswana and top managers in most companies are expatriates because they believe that locals are unskilled or do not have the skills that the industry needs.
He said the investors’ explanations have been that they are here to make profit not to train staff. “Botswana Qualification Authority and HRDC were put together to look into the issue of skills development in the country.”
He regretted that since the training levy was introduced to upgrade Batswana’s skills to fill that need in the industry only, 11 out of 200 companies in Selebi-Phikwe attended the skills development workshop that HRDC organised last year.
This year HRDC invited 30 levy paying companies but only seven participants showed up. Maikaelelo, however said, non-levy paying companies that want to send their employees for training are illegible to claim from the fund. He added that there are about 12,000 companies in the country paying the levy, but only 1,500 are actively claiming from the fund. He said the money ends up being used to pay training for non-paying companies.
Maikaelelo noted that companies are sluggish to claim from the fund because they say it is a difficult and lengthy process.
He added that concerns from the workplace are shortage of supply of skills in relation to skills demand, mismatch of skills needs and that locals cannot hit the ground running.