Training Interventions

The SDF who is responsible for training and development in the company (usually the Skills Development Facilitator) must now facilitate a process to prioritise the training needs. It must be determined which of the needs are the most important. More time, effort and resources must be spending on these needs. The SDF and the manager will work together on this matter.

It means they must consider what the benefits will be if they address the training needs and what the costs will be to implement the training needs. The benefits to the company will depend on the extent to which the interventions will contribute towards the following:

• The company’s vision and objectives
• The company’s Equity Plan
• The improved performance of the employees
• The motivation of the employees
• The skills priorities that were identified by the relevant SETA.

The next step is to collect information on available interventions that will be the best to address the needs that were identified. One must also identify what resources like facilities, requirements, money and so forth, the company will need to implement these interventions.

The following information is very important in the planning process:

• What interventions are available
• Accredited providers to provide these interventions
• Which skill is addressed by training programme
• Which unit standards and/or qualifications the learners will achieve in the end
• What the costs will be
• Any other resources that will be required
• What the duration of the intervention will be
• Venues

To obtain the above-mentioned information, the SDF/designated person can use the following:

• Pamphlets
• Newspapers
• Provider websites
• Skills development related websites
• SETA websites
• Exhibitions

Now that the company has identified possible training providers and they have determined what resources they will need, they must establish if they have the necessary resources. If they do not, it is obvious that they should not go that route and they have to re-plan.

Click here to view an explanation about training interventions.

Types of Training Interventions

Short Courses Or Non-Credit Bearing Training

A short course is a structured learning programme that is not based on a Unit Standard. It is not aligned with a Unit Standard. The learner will not receive any credits for the training attended. It is paid from the organisation’s training and development budget. This budget is part of the Strategic budget of the organisation. It includes refresher courses, soft skills and product-specific courses. Example: a one-day course on Time Management presented by an external training provider.

Skills Programmes

A skills programme is a structured programme that is based on a Unit Standard or standards.

Who may offer a skills programme? Accredited training providers offer skills programmes.

SETAs often list the names and contact details of accredited providers on their websites. Training providers offer public programmes or in-house training that can only be attended by the employees of that specific organization or business.

However, the organization or business can be accredited as a training provider and then facilitate their own learning programmes.

When the employer implements skills programmes, it can be funded in various ways namely:

• Discretionary funds from the SETA
• Use the grants given to the organization by the SETA for developing and implementing the WSP, i.e. mandatory grants
• To use the training and development budget of the organisation or business.

Adult Basic Education And Training (ABET)

Adult basic education and training is the general conceptual foundation towards lifelong learning and development, comprising of knowledge, skills and attitudes required for social, economic and political participation and transformation applicable to a range of contexts. ABET is flexible, developmental and targeted at the specific needs of audiences, and ideally, provides access to nationally recognized certificates.

The term ABET refers to Adult Basic Education and Training and refers to education up to the equivalent of grade 9 (standard 7). ABET refers to both literacy and numeracy.

Many of today's workers get by with chronically-low levels of literacy and numeracy, which are a result of the failures of the education system when many of today's adults were at school.

Funding was very low at that time and turmoil in townships deprived many of the opportunity to attend school.

Many employers are unaware of the functional level of literacy and numeracy of their employees and school certificates don't always adequately reflect this, causing problems for employees and employers alike. Abet can be the solution for them.

ABET is a national priority and several sources of funding for ABET training are currently available.

The business must allow workers some time off for studying Abet but the benefits are enormous.

Apart from the gratitude that learners show to their employers for facilitating the learning, the improvement in productivity in the workplace soon drops down to the bottom line.

In a globalised economy, local companies must suddenly compete at international standards. That's hard to do if your workforce can't read and write to an acceptable level.

Ensuring that your workers are functionally literate and numerate is a positive step now available to all.

Learnerships

Learnerships are formal learning programmes that require learning on the job supported by structured or institutional learning. They are generally designed in the SETAs, approved by the Department of Higher Education and Training, funded from the Skills Levy and must lead to a qualification on the NQF.

Learnerships aim to strengthen the linkage between structured learning and structured work experience for learners to obtain a learning that takes place within an education and training institution or through an education and training provider) and structured institutional learning (which refers to a planned workplace experience). Many SETAs use a formula of approximately 70% structured work experience and 30% institutional learning, but the inverse is also possible. Learnerships must lead to a full qualification on the NQF and are expected generally to last between 12 and 18 months.

A learnership is designed to function as a mechanism to bridge the gaps between the worlds of education and work. Thus, the workplace component of the learner ship is critical, and should best be supported by mentorship in addition to any external tuition. If there are no employers to enter into learnership agreements with providers and learners, then there are no learnerships.

Offering learnerships is the preferred basis for companies to recover a portion of their contribution to the Skills Development Levy.

Learnerships are the key to the success of the Skills Development Strategy.

A learnership must:

• Consist of a structural learning component
• Include practical work experience of a specific nature and duration
• Lead to a qualification registered by SAQA and related to an occupation.

Contracts must be drawn up between the learner and the employer, the learner and the provider, and the provider and the employer.

A SETA may establish a learnership if:

• The learnership consists of a structured learning component.
• The learnership includes practical work experience of a specified nature and duration.
• The learnership would lead to a qualification registered by the South African Qualifications Authority and related to an occupation.
• The intended learnership is registered with the Director-general in the prescribed manner.

The following people can attend a learnership:

• Current employees working in the organization or business (18.1).
• Unemployed people who the employer wishes to assist in improving their qualifications but do not wish to employ on a permanent basis (18.2). They will be employed for the duration of the learnership.

There are three parties involved in a learnership. They are:

• The learner
• The employer (or a group of employers who provides the practical experience)
• An accredited training provider or it could be a group of providers

The advantages of a learnership for the employer:

• It can be a source for recruiting people to appoint them on a permanent basis after successfully completion of the learnership
• SETAs provide grants to the employers who implement the learnership
• Organisations or businesses qualify for a tax incentive (deductions on their income tax)
• It provides an opportunity to employers to contribute to issues such as the development of the specific sector, providing jobs, etc.

The learnership can be funded by:

• The employer applies at the applicable SETA for learnership grants
• The training budget of the organisation

When can the learnership be terminated? It can only be terminated before the date specified in the agreement if:

• The learner successfully completes the learnership
• The relevant SETA approves a written application by the learner to terminate the agreement
• The relevant SETA approves if a good case is shown by the employer to terminate the agreement
• The learner is fairly dismissed

Keep in mind that the contract can only be terminated if the learnership is terminated for the above reasons and provided that the learner was not already employed by the employer when the agreement was started.

Internship

An internship is a work-related learning experience for individuals who wish to develop hands on work experience in a certain occupational field. Most internship is temporary assignments that last approximately three months up to a year.

An intern is one who works in a temporary position with an emphasis on on-the-job training rather than merely employment. An example: a student who works in order to gain experience in their chosen field; a medical student or recently graduated medical student working in a hospital as a final part of medical training

An internship provides supervised work experience in an area relevant to a student's career goals. Internships can be paid or unpaid.

Apprenticeship

The concept of an apprenticeship has been around since the latter part of the Middle Ages and remains a viable form of training today. Essentially, an apprenticeship is a means of taking on an individual who will learn the skills and practices that are associated with a given career path. The apprentice is taken under the wing of an individual who is recognized and an expert practitioner of the craft, and over a period of years is schooled in all aspects of the career, until the apprentice is able to go out on his or her own and function effectively.

The idea of an apprenticeship first developed as a way for craftsmen to train young protégés in a craft, with an eye of one day turning their business over to the apprentice. In other applications, municipal governments would send young men to another location to be schooled in a craft, with the understanding the individual would return to the town or village after the apprenticeship and set up a local shop. In both cases, the apprentices would remain with the master craftsman for a number of years, until it was determined that the individual had earned the right to be referred to as a craftsman, and was ready to go it alone.

While most apprenticeships in the middle Ages involved the vocational training of young men, there were some apprenticeship opportunities for young women as well. Most of these involved schooling in what were considered feminine arts, such as embroidery, weaving and sewing, and in some cases learning how to be a governess. Just as with the young men, the young women who entered an apprenticeship had to demonstrate some degree of natural talent and would commit to a period of five to seven years away from family.

As time went on, the process of apprenticeship underwent a great deal of change. Governmental regulations began to define the limits of apprenticeship, which led to the abandonment of the practice of apprenticing young people in some crafts. In others, the process of apprenticeship began to change into a process that is not unlike the on the job training programs that are often found today. Still, the concept of the apprenticeship is not dead. Especially with the creative arts, it is still possible to attach an individual to someone who is acknowledged as an authority and spend several years studying under the tutelage of that expert authority.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD)

It is the education and training directly related to the profession, undertaken beyond the academic qualification to keep up to date with new development and hence the image of the profession.

Experiential Learning

This is a process of making meaning from direct experience, that is, it is learning by doing. It includes two different types of learning by yourself and experiential education. That is the education that occurs as a direct participation the event; learning that is organized by learners themselves, that is self-teach. In experiential education the teacher gives information/knowledge to the learner and prescribed study/learning exercises.

Recognition Of Prior Learning

Recognition of prior learning gives a person an opportunity to access further and higher education. The idea is to give recognition and credits to those who have learned through informal ways and can prove competence against unit standards and qualifications.

RPL is a method of assessing evidence of competence that can lead to credits and/or qualifications. It is regarded as the first step in a learning programme to build on skills and knowledge that the applicant already has.

In a nutshell, RPL deletes the invisible demarcations between work, learning and social and leisure environments and regards the exposure to these contexts as making a valuable contribution to the endowment of an individual with skills, knowledge, insights and attitudes which, if assessed appropriately, could warrant the award of relevant credits.

Click here to view a video that explains how to train employees