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Skills development is one of the most practical investments a company can make. When people have the knowledge and skills their jobs need, they work faster, make fewer mistakes and adapt more easily when the work changes. Both the employer and the employee benefit, and in South Africa a national levy-grant system gives employers a structure for planning and reporting the training they do.
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Add a certificate to your CV with BOTI e-learning: 142 self-paced online courses – Excel, Word, project management, customer service and more – from R595 (excl. VAT) with 6 months’ access.
See the e-learning courses
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BOTI is accredited by the QCTO (Quality Council for Trades and Occupations) as a skills development provider, and is a Level 1 B-BBEE (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment) contributor. Plan the training in your Workplace Skills Plan and count it towards your B-BBEE skills development score.
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BOTI is accredited by the QCTO (Quality Council for Trades and Occupations) as a skills development provider, and is a Level 1 B-BBEE (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment) contributor. Plan the training in your Workplace Skills Plan and count it towards your B-BBEE skills development score.
Get a quote for your team
Workplace skills development means planned training that closes the gap between the skills your people have and the skills your organisation needs, now and in future. This guide answers what skills development is, sets out the benefits of skills development training for employers and employees, explains how to identify skills gaps, and shows how South Africa’s Skills Development Act and its levy-grant system support it. If you plan or deliver this training, our train-the-trainer and skills development courses cover facilitation, assessment, moderation and the Skills Development Facilitator role.
What is skills development?
Skills development is the process of building the knowledge, practical skills and work habits a person needs to do a job well and to grow into new roles. It happens in many ways: short courses and workshops, on-the-job training, coaching and mentoring, job rotation, learnerships, skills programmes and full qualifications.
Workplace skills development is the employer’s side of this. It is planned, ongoing training linked to the organisation’s goals. It differs from sending someone on a once-off course because it starts with a question, “What skills do we need, and who needs them?”, and ends by checking whether the training made a difference at work. Training is the main tool; development is the result you are after.
The skills employers develop usually fall into a few groups:
- Technical and job-specific skills: the systems, equipment, processes and knowledge a role depends on.
- People skills: communication, teamwork, customer service and handling conflict.
- Leadership and management skills: supervising, planning, delegating and developing others. See our leadership and management courses.
- Compliance skills: health and safety, data protection, labour law and other rules the business must follow.
- Digital skills: as more work moves onto digital systems, these have become part of almost every job.
Why is developing skills important in the workplace?
Jobs change faster than job descriptions. New systems, new regulations and new customer expectations all ask more of the people doing the work, and people change jobs more often than they used to. Training the people you already have is often quicker than hiring from outside, it keeps knowledge in the business, and it makes you less dependent on consultants and contractors for work your own staff could do with the right training.
Attracting top talent
Self-driven, capable people look for employers who help them learn and advance their careers. An organisation with a visible skills development programme finds it easier to attract them and to keep them, and a workplace where people are growing tends to be a healthier one.
Developing people
Every employee has career goals. If there is no way to grow where they are, many will eventually look elsewhere. When the organisation offers development, people can take on new roles and responsibilities without leaving. As a manager or business owner, find out what your people want to achieve and match those goals with what the business needs. A short development plan per person, agreed in their performance review, is a simple place to start.
Planning for future success
Skills development creates the managers of tomorrow. As part of succession planning, the organisation identifies people with potential, gives them leadership skills and experience, and prepares them to step in when senior managers retire or move on. Skills also need to pass from experienced staff to junior staff in time, so that the business does not lose them when someone leaves. Our Business Succession Planning Course and Talent Management and People Development Course cover this planning.
Performance and productivity
People are one of an organisation’s most valuable assets. Training at every level, from new entrants to senior managers, closes skills gaps and keeps performance improving across the company, not only in the teams that happen to have a training budget.
Benefits of skills development training
The benefits of skills development reach both sides of the employment relationship: employee skills development pays off for the business and for the person being trained. Each business has different needs, so the weight of each benefit depends on the roles and responsibilities involved.
Benefits for employers
- Higher performance and productivity: staff who know how to do the work do it faster, with fewer errors and less rework.
- New technology and work methods that actually get used: a new system only pays off when people can use it well. This calls for ongoing training, not a single session at launch.
- Keeping up with changes in the industry: when regulations, products or technology change, staff need to know what changes in their daily work.
- Lower staff turnover: people tend to stay where they are developed, which lowers the cost of recruiting and replacing skilled workers.
- Knowledge and skills management: regular training refreshes skills, keeps knowledge inside the business and widens the pool of people ready for promotion.
- A planned, reported training record: the same planning supports the employer’s Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report, explained below.
Benefits for employees
- Confidence and competence: people who know how to do their job well feel less pressure and do better work.
- Career growth: new skills prepare employees for promotion and for new roles.
- Job satisfaction and morale: when employees see that their employer is investing in them, they are more motivated.
- Skills that travel: skills stay with the person, making them more employable across industries and better prepared if they later start their own business.
- Recognition: accredited skills programmes build credits towards a registered qualification, and non-accredited short courses give a certificate of attendance.
Why is developing skills important in South Africa?
Skills are tied to employment, productivity and the growth of businesses, which is why South Africa built a national system around them. The Skills Development Act aims to raise workplace productivity, give workers more opportunities to train and advance, and make room for new entrants to the labour market. For employers, this shows up in practical ways:
- Many people move into roles before they have every skill the role needs. Structured upskilling and reskilling close that gap.
- When senior staff retire or are promoted, their skills must be passed on to junior staff in time. This applies to government departments and municipalities as much as to private companies.
- Learnerships, skills programmes and workplace experience help new entrants become productive.
- Employers who pay the skills levy can claim part of it back, but only if they plan and report their training, as explained below.
How to identify skills gaps in the workplace
Before you train anyone, find out where the gaps are and how they link to the organisation’s short-term and long-term goals. Four methods work well together:
- Training needs analysis (TNA): a structured review, usually led by HR, of where staff need learning and development across the organisation. It compares the skills each role needs with the skills people have.
- Performance reviews: they give evidence of individual strengths and weaknesses and show where skills are absent or weak.
- Employee requests: ask people where they feel they lack skills. They often know before their managers do.
- Skill-will matrix: compares how skilled a person is at a task with how willing they are to do it. Someone with low skill and high willingness is ready for training; someone with high skill and low willingness needs motivation rather than another course.
How employers plan workplace skills development
A training plan that works follows the same steps each year:
- Start with the business goals. What does the organisation need to do better or differently in the next year?
- Identify the gaps, using the methods above.
- Write the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP). This is the employer’s annual training plan, submitted to its SETA by 30 April[1]. It is usually prepared by the organisation’s Skills Development Facilitator (SDF).
- Choose the right kind of training for each gap: a short course, coaching and mentoring, on-the-job training, or an accredited skills programme or qualification. Where staff need a formal, credit-bearing result, look at our QCTO skills programmes; for one-on-one support, see our Coaching and Mentoring Course.
- Deliver it in a way the work can absorb. People still have their normal workload while they train, so plan cover and timing. In-house or online sessions can reduce time away from the job.
- Measure the results. Check whether behaviour and performance changed at work, not only whether people attended. Our Measuring Results from Training course shows how.
- Report it in the Annual Training Report (ATR). The ATR records the training actually done in the previous year and is submitted with the WSP.
The Skills Development Act, the skills levy and SETA grants
The purpose of the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 is to set up South Africa’s system for developing the skills of its workforce. It provides for financing skills development through a levy-grant scheme and a National Skills Fund[2], and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) was established under it in 2010. In practice, it works like this:
- The Skills Development Levy (SDL) is 1% of payroll[3], paid monthly through SARS by employers who are liable for it.
- Where the levy goes: 80% goes to the employer’s SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority) and 20% to the National Skills Fund[1]. There are currently 21 SETAs, each covering a sector of the economy.
- The mandatory grant is 20% of the employer’s levy. To claim it, the employer must submit its WSP and ATR by 30 April and be up to date with its levy payments. Unclaimed mandatory grant money moves to discretionary funding by 15 August[1].
- Discretionary grants are how SETAs fund training in their sectors, mainly PIVOTAL programmes (professional, vocational, technical and academic learning that leads to qualifications or part-qualifications)[4] and learnerships. They are not automatic, so check your SETA’s current grant policy before you plan around one.
- Quality assurance: the QCTO accredits providers of occupational qualifications, part-qualifications and skills programmes, and SETAs work with it as Quality Partners.
- B-BBEE: skills development spending also counts on the B-BBEE scorecard.
For an employer, the Act’s main effect is to turn training from an ad hoc expense into a planned, reported activity. The organisations that benefit most treat the WSP as a real plan for the year rather than a form to submit.
Common challenges in workplace skills development
Skills development does not always deliver what it should. The usual reasons are easy to avoid once you know them:
- Training that does not fit the person. If employees have no say, training can feel imposed and unrelated to their careers. Involve them in the plan and explain why each course matters.
- Workload during training. People who must keep up with their full workload while training learn less. Plan cover, or schedule training around peak periods.
- No follow-through. New skills fade if they are not used. Line managers should agree with each person how they will apply what they learnt, and check on it.
- No measurement. Without evidence of results, training budgets are the first to be cut. Measure, and report what changed.
Frequently asked questions
What is skills development in the workplace?
Skills development in the workplace is the planned process of giving employees new knowledge and skills so that they perform better in their current role and are ready for future ones. It starts by identifying skills gaps, for example through a training needs analysis or performance reviews, and then provides training that closes those gaps and supports the organisation’s short-term and long-term goals.
What are the benefits of skills development training?
For the organisation, skills development raises performance and productivity, helps staff adopt new technology and keep up with industry changes, and builds the managers of tomorrow through succession planning. For employees, it brings career growth and higher job satisfaction and morale. Because people tend to stay where they are developed, it also lowers staff turnover and the cost of replacing skilled workers.
What is the purpose of the Skills Development Act?
The Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 sets up South Africa’s system for developing the skills of its workforce. It provides for financing skills development through a levy-grant scheme and a National Skills Fund[2], and the QCTO was established under it in 2010. Its aims include raising workplace productivity, giving workers more opportunities to train and advance, and making room for new entrants to the labour market.
How does the skills development levy work for employers?
Employers who pay the Skills Development Levy (SDL) pay 1% of payroll[3] monthly through SARS. Of the levy, 80% goes to the employer’s SETA and 20% to the National Skills Fund[1]. An employer can claim a mandatory grant of 20% of its levy by submitting a Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report by 30 April and keeping levy payments up to date. Unclaimed money moves to discretionary grants by 15 August[1].
How do you identify skills gaps in the workplace?
Start with a training needs analysis (TNA), a structured review of where staff need learning and development across the organisation. Performance reviews add evidence on individual strengths and weaknesses, and employees can ask for training where they feel they lack skills. A skill-will matrix, which compares how willing people are to do a task with how skilled they are, helps you decide who needs training and what kind.
If you plan training for your organisation, or want a career in skills development, the Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) Training Course is a three-day course for the person who prepares the Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report. We run it in-house, at our Sunningdale, Johannesburg venue, or online, with a BOTI certificate of attendance. Call 011 882 8853.
Sources
- Mandatory Grants – Health and Welfare SETA (HWSETA), 2026.
- Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 – South African Government (gov.za), 1998.
- Skills Development Levy – South African Revenue Service (SARS), 2026.
- Grants Policy 2025/26 – merSETA, 2024.
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