How to optimise your B-BBEE Skills Development (SD) spend at financial year-end

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It is that time of the year to get those last points in for your B-BBEE SD spend. With the financial year end for most companies coming up at the end of February, now is the time to make sure that you are compliant to stay on your current level, or to improve even more!

Many businesses are unsure of how to actually do this effectively and are struggling with the fact that critical face-to-face training came to a halt due to COVID-19 restrictions. For example, did you know that by signing up for Empanda’s short online programmes you can ignite your skills training again and top up your B-BBEE SD points? Grab hold of the opportunity to not only get extra points for your B-BBEE spend, but also claim funds back from your SETA.

Here is how it works: The Skills Development Levy (SDL) is a levy imposed to encourage learning and development in South Africa and is determined by an employer’s salary bill. The purpose of these funds is to develop and improve the skills of employees. Where an employer expects that the total salaries will be more than R500 000 over the next 12 months, that employer becomes liable to pay this levy (source).

So, if your gross annual wage exceeds R500k, you are liable to pay 1% of that toward SDL, which is then distributed. 20% of this goes to the National Skills Funds (NSF), a critical national skills development resource that contributes to the national skills development priorities. The other 80% goes to the SETAs, who distribute 20% to mandatory grants and 49.5% to discretionary grants. The other 10.5% goes to administration costs.

A discretionary grant is a grant paid out to applicants for Skills Development Projects linked to scarce and critical skills and are directed at programmes that result in qualifications or part qualification on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). These can include Learnerships, Work Integrated Learning, Internships, Bursaries, and Skills Programmes.

Mandatory grants, on the other hand, is a return you get when you submit your Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR) to your SETA. So, if you are paying SDL, you can claim against the mandatory grants and get up to 80% of your SDL spend back, depending on:

Your submission history
The type of training and programmes you fund, which is also dependent on the SETA you belong to
Any extra spend you incur above and beyond the required SDL
Whether you focus on unemployed as well as employed learners

Don’t lose out on your mandatory grant. You are spending money on training anyway, so you might as well get something back.

This is how we can help you: We currently have a promotion that can link your training spend to a learning management system (LMS), called JUNO. We are offering a 15% discount for all users for the first year if you buy before the 31st of March as well as 100% free onboarding that is valued at R8 000.00.

On JUNO you can author user friendly courses fast, create and / or host unaccredited short online training courses that not only contribute to 15% of your B-BBEE SD points but can also be submitted to your SETA on your ATR.

You see, money spent on your LMS, just like your Wi-Fi, travel, accommodation, and all other training expenses count and will contribute to that possible 80% that you can get back from SDL that you pay each month.

Many think that it is tedious to submit training reports to SETA and are missing out on these returns, but with our advisory support it does not need to be a headache!

Click here for our helpful infographic to give you an overview of how to maximise your return.
Give us a call – we can help you.

Call: 021 110 5830
Email: kerry@empanda.co.za