The department of economic opportunities in the Western Cape province has encouraged companies to submit their workplace skills plans and annual training reports to skills education training authorities before month end to potentially benefit from training grants.
The department also encouraged businesses to include workplace-based learning opportunities like apprenticeships in their plans.
Companies with a payroll exceeding R500,000 per annum should submit the documents in order to comply with skills development legislation and to access mandatory and discretionary grants, it said.
““Failure to submit their plans will mean companies receive zero points on the skills development section of their BEE (black economic empowerment) scorecards and could lose out on valuable tax deductions,” it added.
The department said the Western Cape government was working closely with employers to tackle unemployment and increase skills through its apprenticeship programme which focused on increasing the number of young people qualifying in technical and vocational occupations over the next few years.
Priority sectors in the programme include oil and gas, tourism, agri-processing, renewable energy and information communication technology.
“We encourage businesses to consider including apprenticeships in their skills and training plans as they are a win-win for everyone,” the province’s minister of economic opportunities Alan Winde said.
He said the target was to introduce 11,300 qualified apprentices into the labour market within the priority sectors by 2019. (via African News Agency)
