Making use of Discretionary and Pivotal Grants

Skills Development Levy (SDL) is a levy imposed by the government to encourage learning and development in South Africa and is determined by an employer's salary bill.  The funds are used to improve and develop the skills of employees.

When an employer expects that the total salaries will be more than R500 000 over the next 12 months, that employer becomes liable to pay SDL at 1% of the total amount paid in salaries to employees (including overtime payments, leave pay, bonuses, commissions and lump sum payments).  This money is collected by SARS and distributed to the relevant Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA), of which there are 21 industry sectors.  Employers are required to register with the SETA which best fits their industry sector.

Employers have the opportunity to claim back levies paid to the SETA on an annual basis through Mandatory Grants and Discretionary or Pivotal Grants.  Employers are required to nominate a registered Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) who may be an employee or an external professional.

Mandatory Grants are applied through the submission of 2 important documents:

• Workplace Skills Plan (WSP): This comprises a list of training that is intended for the year ahead.
• Annual Training Report (ATR): This is a list of training which was done for the past year.

Discretionary and/or Pivotal Grants are applied through the same process using a SDF and by submitting an application form, obtained from the SETA.  The SETA will accumulate all submissions and allocate funds which have been set aside for this purpose.  The SETA will allocate funds at their discretion but will focus on training programmes which address the scarce and critical needs for their sector.  Information regarding scarce and critical skills for your sector will be available from your SETA.

Employers have until the 30th April to submit applications.  If you don't apply you cannot be part of this funding opportunity, so don't miss out!

What can we claim for?

Skills programmes for the following roles:

Warehouse Stock Clerk
Inventory Controller
Production Planner and Scheduler
Manufacturing Controller

Learnerships:

NQF3 Warehouse and Stock Management
NQF4 Inventory and Replenishment
NQF4 Operational Planning and Scheduling
NQF4 Lean Manufacturing

(Reproduced with permission of Bizzco)

For further information, please contact PSQ.

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