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Your company falls under the SETA that covers its main business activity. That activity is shown by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code captured on your SARS Skills Development Levy (SDL) registration. South Africa has 21 Sector Education and Training Authorities, and your SIC code links you to one of them. Your SETA is where you submit your Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR), claim your mandatory grant and apply for discretionary funding. If the person who owns that process needs training, see BOTI’s skills development, SDF and training practitioner courses.
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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
Rather have your employer pay? Here’s how to ask
Training your staff?
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
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
This guide is for HR or L&D leads, finance managers, business owners and Skills Development Facilitators (SDFs) who need to confirm their SETA before submitting a WSP or planning training. It explains how SETA allocation works, what SETA classification codes are, and how to find and check yours in a few practical steps. It also covers how BOTI can help you train your team and handle the reporting that follows.
The business problem: you cannot claim from the wrong SETA
Employers above the SDL threshold pay the Skills Development Levy at 1% of payroll[1] to SARS each month. Most of that levy flows to your SETA, and you can only claim the mandatory grant and apply for discretionary grants from the SETA you are registered with.
If your business is mapped to the wrong SETA, your WSP lands in the wrong place and your grant claim stalls. Mandatory grant money that is not claimed moves into the SETA’s discretionary funding by 15 August each year[2].
The confusion is understandable. Each of these businesses could plausibly sit under more than one SETA:
- a manufacturer with a sizeable retail arm;
- a logistics firm that also runs maintenance workshops;
- a holding company spanning several divisions.
But you register with one SETA, the one that matches your primary activity. That single allocation governs your reporting and funding.
What SETA stands for and what SETAs do
SETA stands for Sector Education and Training Authority. There are still 21 SETAs, and their current licence period runs from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2030. In practice, SETAs:
- Receive most of the levy: 80% of the 1% levy goes to the SETAs and 20% to the National Skills Fund[2].
- Pay grants: mandatory grants to employers who submit a WSP and ATR on time, and discretionary grants for programmes such as learnerships and skills programmes.
- Fund learnerships in their sectors.
- Act as Quality Partners of the QCTO under signed service level agreements, and carry the work of developing and replacing occupational qualifications.
One change is often misunderstood. For the new occupational qualifications, part-qualifications and skills programmes, training providers are accredited by the QCTO, not the SETA. Read more in what a SETA is and how SETAs and the QCTO differ.
The President announced SETA rationalisation in February 2026, but no merger decision had been published at the time of writing. Check your SETA’s current status before planning for the long term.
Who needs to confirm their SETA
Knowing your SETA is a practical requirement for the people who own the training budget and the compliance:
- HR and L&D managers planning team training and owning the WSP and ATR.
- Finance leads reconciling the SDL paid against the grant recovered.
- Business owners and MDs of SMEs who pay the levy but have never claimed it back.
- Skills Development Facilitators registering, submitting and claiming on the employer’s behalf.
- Operations and department managers whose team training needs to be captured and reported correctly.
If you sign off training spend or carry the skills development compliance, your SETA allocation is the first thing to confirm.
How SETA allocation works
Your SETA follows from how your business is classified. It is not a preference. Three things drive it:
- Your SIC code: the Standard Industrial Classification code describing your main economic activity, captured when you register for the SDL with SARS.
- Your primary activity: where a company spans sectors, the SETA normally follows the activity that employs the largest share of your payroll.
- The SETA-to-SIC mapping: each SETA is gazetted to cover specific SIC codes, so your code maps you to one SETA.
Because the allocation flows from your SARS registration, the quickest way to confirm your SETA is to check the SDL details SARS holds. Then match your SIC code against the official mapping.
SETA classification codes explained
When people search for “SETA codes” or “SETA classification codes”, they usually mean the SIC codes that each SETA is gazetted to cover. The SIC code describes what your business does, and the gazetted mapping links each code to a SETA.
If the SIC code on your SARS record no longer describes your main activity, your levy may be going to a SETA that does not match your business. For example, this can happen after a restructure or acquisition, or because the code was captured incorrectly. Correcting it is a formal re-classification process with SARS and the SETAs. You cannot simply submit to a different SETA.
How to find which SETA your company falls under
Use this five-step check:
- Find your SIC code. Check your SARS SDL registration (your tax practitioner or payroll provider can confirm it) or your company registration documents.
- Identify your primary business activity. If you operate across sectors, work out which activity employs the largest share of your payroll. That activity governs the allocation.
- Match the SIC code to a SETA. Use the official SETA-to-SIC mapping, published in the Government Gazette and in Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) resources, to find the SETA your code falls under.
- Confirm with the SETA. Contact that SETA to verify your employer registration and grant eligibility before you submit a WSP.
- Re-check after a major change. Your classification may need revisiting if your main activity shifts, for example through a new division, an acquisition or a change of direction. Re-classification to a different SETA is a formal process with SARS and the SETAs.
How to check if you are registered with a SETA
Start with your SDL registration on SARS’s records, because that is what links your levy to a SETA. Then contact the SETA your SIC code points to. Ask it to confirm three things:
- that your company is registered as an employer on its system;
- that your Skills Development Facilitator is linked to your account;
- that your levy payments are up to date.
Do this well before the 30 April[2] WSP and ATR deadline, so any registration problem can be fixed in time.
A worked example
Say a Gauteng business assembles steel components, which is where most of its payroll goes. It also runs a small warehouse that sells stock to the public. Both retail and manufacturing seem to apply.
Because the largest share of payroll sits in engineering and assembly, the SIC code points to merSETA, not the wholesale and retail SETA. The WSP, ATR and grant claim therefore all go to merSETA.
The principle is simple: follow the payroll to the primary activity, then follow the SIC code to the SETA.
The 21 SETAs at a glance
South Africa has 21 SETAs, each covering a defined sector. The descriptions below are broad. The gazetted mapping is the authority on which SETA your specific SIC code falls under.
| SETA | Sector it broadly covers |
|---|---|
| AgriSETA | Agriculture |
| BANKSETA | Banking and microfinance |
| CATHSSETA | Culture, arts, tourism, hospitality and sport |
| CETA | Construction |
| CHIETA | Chemical industries |
| ETDP SETA | Education, training and development practices |
| EWSETA | Energy and water |
| FASSET | Finance, accounting and related services |
| FoodBev SETA | Food and beverage manufacturing |
| FP&M SETA | Fibre processing and manufacturing |
| HWSETA | Health and social development |
| INSETA | Insurance |
| LGSETA | Local government |
| merSETA | Manufacturing, engineering and related services |
| MICT SETA | Media, ICT and telecommunications |
| MQA | Mining and minerals |
| PSETA | Public service |
| SASSETA | Safety and security |
| Services SETA | Business, professional and personal services |
| TETA | Transport |
| W&RSETA | Wholesale and retail |
For planning, the point is simple. Once you know your SETA, you know where your WSP, grant claim and learnership funding applications go.
Not sure which SETA you fall under, or whether you are registered correctly? Call BOTI on 011 882 8853 or use the BOTI booking page. Ask BOTI to help you work through your SETA allocation and WSP readiness before your deadline.
How BOTI training fits once you know your SETA
A sound skills development cycle is built on training you can plan, report and, where possible, fund. BOTI helps in two ways:
- Accredited programmes: BOTI is a QCTO-accredited Skills Development Provider for occupational certificates and skills programmes, which end in a QCTO-issued certificate. BOTI also offers selected legacy SETA qualifications that are still open for enrolment. See the accredited course catalogue.
- Practical skills courses: fast, targeted capability where credits are not the goal. These can still be recorded in your Annual Training Report as staff development.
The person who owns your WSP and ATR carries the SETA relationship every year. BOTI’s Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) Training Course helps that person plan training, prepare the WSP and ATR, and keep the submission on track.
Delivery formats
We deliver in the format that suits your team and your reporting:
- In-house at your premises: often the practical option for a group, with attendance records built around your own team.
- At BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg: for teams that prefer to train away from daily interruptions.
- Live online with a facilitator: efficient for teams spread across several sites, with no travel.
Funding: put the levy you already pay to work
Once your SETA is confirmed, you can start recovering part of the levy you pay. As general guidance only:
- The levy and its split: the SDL is 1% of payroll for employers above the threshold[1]. It is split as follows: 49.5% to SETA discretionary grants, 20% to mandatory grants, 10% to SETA administration, 0.5% to the QCTO and 20% to the National Skills Fund[2].
- The mandatory grant: it pays back 20% of the levies you paid[2]. To receive it, you must submit your WSP and ATR to your SETA by 30 April[2] and be up to date with your levy payments.
- Unclaimed money: unclaimed mandatory grant money moves to discretionary funding by 15 August[2].
- Discretionary grants: these fund programmes such as learnerships and skills programmes. They are awarded at the SETA’s discretion, so apply within its funding windows.
For the detail, read how to claim SETA funding and the WSP submission deadline guide. This is general information, not financial or legal advice. Confirm the specifics with your SETA or SDF.
Why BOTI
BOTI (Business Optimization Training Institute) is a QCTO-accredited Skills Development Provider and a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor. We offer 450 courses, hold a Google rating of 4.8 from more than 770 reviews, and count Sasol, Glencore and the City of Johannesburg among our clients. We deliver practical training for whole teams and help you plan it so it can be reported to the correct SETA.
Clients who are confirming their SETA often also look at:
- What a Skills Development Facilitator does: the role that manages your SETA relationship.
- Corporate training programmes and short courses: group delivery with clear attendance records.
- The full BOTI course range: sales, management, finance, HR and technical training for teams.
Frequently asked questions
Which SETA does my company fall under?
Your company falls under the SETA that covers its main business activity, as shown by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code on its SARS Skills Development Levy registration. Where a business spans sectors, the activity that employs the largest share of payroll normally decides. Confirm the allocation with that SETA before you submit your Workplace Skills Plan.
What are SETA classification codes?
SETA classification codes are usually the SIC codes that each SETA is gazetted to cover. Your SIC code describes your main economic activity, and the official mapping links that code to one of the 21 SETAs. If your code no longer reflects what the business does, re-classification is a formal process with SARS and the SETAs.
What does SETA stand for and what do SETAs do?
SETA stands for Sector Education and Training Authority. South Africa has 21 SETAs. They receive most of the Skills Development Levy, pay mandatory and discretionary grants, fund learnerships and act as Quality Partners of the QCTO, which accredits providers for occupational qualifications and skills programmes.
How do I check if my company is registered with a SETA?
Start with the SDL registration details SARS holds for your company; your payroll provider or tax practitioner can confirm them. Then contact the SETA your SIC code points to and ask it to confirm your employer registration and whether your Skills Development Facilitator is linked to your account before the 30 April WSP and ATR deadline.
Can a company fall under more than one SETA?
No. A company registers with one SETA, the one matching its primary business activity. If your main activity genuinely changes, you can apply through SARS and the SETAs to be re-classified, but this is a formal process rather than a free choice.
Talk to BOTI about your SETA and training plan
Confirm your SETA, then make the levy you pay work for you. Request a quote and a BOTI consultant will scope training for your team. You can also ask BOTI to help you plan a WSP and ATR under the correct SETA.
To build the skill inside your organisation, enrol the person who owns your WSP on the Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) Training Course. Call BOTI on 011 882 8853 or email [email protected]. Training runs in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. This course is not accredited. It is delivered as a professional skills programme, and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
Sources
- Skills Development Levy – South African Revenue Service (SARS), 2026.
- Mandatory Grants – Health and Welfare SETA (HWSETA), 2026.
For employers: put your skills levy to work
We train your staff at your offices, online or at a BOTI venue. Training can be planned in your Workplace Skills Plan, and spend on training black employees counts towards the skills development element of your B-BBEE scorecard.
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