FREE TRAINING

Now that I have your attention, you are saying the only things that you get for free today are problems, headaches, heartburn and stress. BUT you can get your training for free I will demonstrate how you can achieve this.

In south Africa you would be paying a Skills Development Levy (SDL) though your monthly EMP201 returns, Employers – whose total pay to all its workers is less than R500 000 per 12 month period are exempt from payment of SDL? You can if you support and believe that skills development is an urgent need in South Africa and the world you could opt to voluntary pay SDL. I recommend if you have questions regarding the SDL visit www.sars.gov.za “Quick reference guide for skills development levy” as to the SDL payment and procedures.

 

Many companies small and large pay this tax over and besides complaining are unaware that you can claim some of this money back and additional through the very same Sector Education Training Authorities (SETA’s) that receive your hard earned monies that you paid through the TAX system. You can get paid to Train.

 

First you need to decide who you would like to train existing or new staff as well as what type of training you would like to implement, this will be against your company’s skills need. Remember if you would like to train an electrical learner you would need to have an electrician in the company who would coach the learner. Once you have made your decision you will need to source a training provider who has the relavant accreditation with the SETA to develop  your apprentice or learner.

 

Many people are unaware which SETA they pay their skills levy to, my recommendation is that you check with you auditor or the tax office and let the SETA verify this for you, as you can only approach the SETA that gets your percentage of SDL you pay.

 

Then you approach and apply to your SETA for the discretionary grants for the program you have decided to implement (if they have allocated monies for the skills you require, this would be against the skills shortage identified by the SETA).  Once the SETA approves your grant you are ready to start your learners on their career path.

 

You can claim or make application to your SETA for the following types of grants

 

Discretionary Grants

 

This grant as it says is at the discretion of the SETA if they have allocated a project with funds and when you check with the Learnership department they will be able to indicate the procedure to get access to these grants for the skills you seek, many SETA’s have a window period where you need to make application or indicate your intention to develop, this detail can be obtained from your SETA or some SETA’s place notifications in some newspaper reminding to apply.

 

Mandatory grants

 

This grant is received if you or your company have submitted a skills plan to the SETA and implement and completed the training as planned. There are conditions and rules about the program accreditation as well as provider accreditation. Please ensure you find a reputable accredited provider as otherwise the SETA will not pay this grant.

 

Tax Rebate

 

In terms of the tax laws you are entitled to claim a tax rebate for the learners remuneration up to R30 000 paid to the learner see “Interpretation note: no. 20 (issue 3) date: 28 January 2010 act : Income tax act, no. 58 of 1962 (the act) Section : Section 12H subject : Learnership allowance”

 

Therefore when you decide that you are going to develop your staff you will receive a discretionary or mandatory grant that will assist in covering costs for the learners allowance as well as training costs and a tax rebate

 

If you follow this you have an additional bonus,  Learnership training can also support your BBBEE rating. This can be clarified and explained by your BBBEE compliance auditor.

 

So the training could be free if you apply to your SETA for the funding your company is entitled too

 

Now if you recall I said that the only things that you get for free today are problems, headaches, heartburn and stress, this is still true and in dealing with some SETA’s you will have to endure all of these free gifts BUT endure and you will get your money from the SETA and furthermore you have developed some learner on the hard earned money you thought you just gave away.

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