The Training Committee

It is strongly recommended that, for organisations with more than 50 employees, a training committee is established for the purposes of consultation on training matters. This committee should reflect the interests of employees from all occupational categories in the organisation's workforce.

A consultative forum should be established, or an existing forum used if this is appropriate, for example, an existing diversity committee, affirmative action or employment equity forum.

All stakeholders should be included in this forum, for example:

• Representative trade unions, and
• Employee representatives from designated groups, all occupational categories and levels, and senior management, including the managers assigned with responsibility.

This forum should engage in proper consultation, which include:

• The opportunity to meet and report back to employees and management,
• Reasonable opportunity for employee representatives to meet with the employer,
• The request, receipt and consideration of relevant information, and
• Adequate time allowed for each of the above processes.

Ongoing interaction with and accessibility to senior management regarding workplace skills issues is critical to the success of this process.

The frequency of consultative forum meetings will vary from employer to employer depending on sophistication, existing levels of diversity, and what has already been accomplished in the workplace regarding skills development. Meetings should however take place regularly and employers should allow time for these meetings.

Role of the Training Committee

The role of a training committee is to:

• Drive and direct the skills development process.
• Ensure that representative consultation takes place regarding up-skilling of employees.
• Authorise and sign off the grant application to the SETA.
• Ensure that the SDF is leading the way with the SD process.
• Support the SDF in the efforts of ‘spreading the word’ regarding training and up-skilling.

Constitution of the Training Committee

A training committee must have constitution in place with the given mandate and should be performance-driven to ensure commitment.

The committee should, aside from its legal obligations in terms of the Employment Equity Act and recommendations of the Skills Development Act, be committed to:

• Improving the quality of life of all workers, their prospects of work and mobility.
• Improving productivity in the workplace and the competitiveness of the company.
• Increasing the levels of investment in education and training and improving the return on that investment.

A training committee should represent the interests of all sectors of its workforce and should consult on the implementation and monitoring of its skills development plans in terms of the relevant Acts and the company’s requirements.

Scope of a Committee

The scope of the committee comprises the activities in the company, as these have been decided in consultation with staff, as identified and described in the Employment Equity Act (EEA), recommended in the SDA and the SDLA (1999) and any regulations, codes of good practice, directives and administrative guidelines published in terms of these Acts.

The committee is responsible for making recommendations to the Board of Directors of the organisation. The training committee is not responsible for the implementation of its recommendations.

The training committee may not be utilised as a forum in which to raise grievances and or demands not related to its scope and objectives.

Objectives of the Training Committee

The first objective of the committee is to promote the objectives of the Skills Development Act within the company by: promoting skills development; by assessing and advising on the development of competency levels of employees so that individual and team performance can be improved: and the objectives of the Employment Equity Plan (EEP) realised, by:

• Proposing actions to continuously enhance the skills level of employees so that technology, process and structural changes can be effectively implemented.
• Developing a WSP.
• Monitoring and reporting on the progress made in implementing the WSP.
• Facilitating employee mobility through outcome-based education and training.
• Assisting employees in utilising the opportunity to use workplace skills development as a mechanism to achieve nationally recognised unit standards and qualifications.
• Enhancing the company’s quality of education and training.
• Addressing the company’s past discrimination and imbalances.
• Contributing to the personal development of learners.
• Optimising the levy rebates from the SETA.

Although not in the mandate of the SDA where the training committee and the equity committee are combined, the second objective of the committee could be to promote the objectives of the EEA within the company by:

• Conducting an analyses of its employment policies, practices, procedures and the working environment in order to identify employment barriers which adversely affect people from designated groups.
• Developing an employment equity plan which will achieve reasonable progress towards employment equity in the company’s workforce.
• Giving input into the preparation and compilation of the reports required to be submitted to the Director-General (DG) of the Department of Labour (DoL) and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET).
• Assisting with the internal procedures to resolve any dispute about the interpretation or implementation of the EEP.