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The B-BBEE scorecard is the points table in the Amended Codes of Good Practice that measures a business across five elements: ownership, management control, skills development, enterprise and supplier development, and socio-economic development. Your total points set your B-BBEE recognition level, from Level 1 (highest) to Level 8. For most South African employers, skills development is the element they can influence most directly within a year, because planned and documented staff training is measured there. BOTI’s B-BBEE, governance and compliance training courses help your team understand the scorecard and plan for it.
This guide explains the five elements, how points set your level and where training fits. It also covers what BOTI can and cannot do for your skills development spend.
The business problem: a scorecard that decides who you trade with
For many South African businesses, the B-BBEE scorecard is a gate rather than an optional extra. Your level can affect whether larger corporates keep you on their supplier list and how customers count your spend on their own enterprise and supplier development. Yet the scorecard is widely misunderstood:
- It looks like a compliance form, not a strategy. Many owners treat verification as a once-a-year scramble and only find out late which elements let them down.
- The elements are not equal, and training spend is often undocumented. Ownership is slow to change, but skills development can be planned within a financial year. Without clean records that match the Codes, though, a verifier may not be able to recognise the spend.
This guide is for South African organisations improving their own scorecard by developing staff and teams. It is not aimed at individuals seeking a personal qualification. It suits several readers:
- Business owners and MDs working towards a better level.
- HR and L&D managers planning a Workplace Skills Plan that also supports the skills development element.
- Finance, procurement and tender managers who need to understand their level.
- Skills Development Facilitators (SDFs) structuring training spend against the levy and the scorecard.
What the B-BBEE scorecard covers: the five elements
Under the Amended Codes of Good Practice, the generic scorecard measures five elements. Sector codes (construction, ICT, tourism, property and others) adjust the weightings and targets, so confirm which code applies to you. As a general guide:
| Scorecard element | What it measures | Indicative weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | Effective black ownership, including voting rights and economic interest. | ~25 points |
| Management control | Black representation across board, executive and management levels. | ~19 points |
| Skills development | Spend and effort on training and developing black employees and learners. | ~20 points + bonus |
| Enterprise & supplier development | Procurement from B-BBEE suppliers, plus support for small and black-owned businesses. | ~40 points |
| Socio-economic development | Contributions that benefit black communities and beneficiaries. | ~5 points |
Ownership, skills development, and enterprise and supplier development are “priority elements”. Each has a sub-minimum. If you miss a sub-minimum, your overall level is discounted. This is why skills development matters more than its weighting suggests.
Your total points set your recognition level. Level 1 is the highest, with 135% procurement recognition, and Level 8 is the lowest. Non-compliant businesses are recognised at 0%.
Where training fits: the skills development element
Skills development is the element where training links most directly to the scorecard, and one you can plan for within a single financial year. It measures:
- Skills development spend on black employees, measured against a target of 6% of the leviable amount[1]. This is the remuneration figure used for the Skills Development Levy. Black employees with disabilities are considered separately.
- Learnerships, internships and apprenticeships that place black learners on recognised programmes. These carry significant weighting, with bonus points available.
- Absorption, where bonus points are available for taking learners into employment afterwards.
Much of this is spend you may already be making. What is often missing is planning and documentation. The training must be delivered to the right employees, with attendance and outcomes captured for your verification file and reported in your Annual Training Report. The verification agency decides what counts. To see how the figures are worked out, read our guide to the skills development calculation for the B-BBEE scorecard.
Planning training around your skills development element? Call 011 882 8853 or request a quote, and ask BOTI to help you map your planned training against the element.
How BOTI helps with the training side
BOTI does not carry out B-BBEE verification. That is the role of an accredited verification agency. BOTI delivers the training that the skills development element measures, with records your SDF and verifier can work with:
- QCTO skills programmes and occupational certificates. These are credit-bearing programmes for black employees and learners. QCTO skills programmes end in a Final Integrated Supervised Assessment (FISA) run by BOTI. Occupational certificates end in an External Integrated Summative Assessment (EISA). In both cases, the QCTO issues the certificate.
- Legacy SETA qualifications that are still open for new enrolment. The last enrolment date differs per qualification.
- SDF training, so the person who owns your WSP, ATR and SETA reporting can plan and document spend correctly.
- Whole-team skills training in management, finance, sales, customer service, computer skills and compliance. These practical short courses develop your people and carry a certificate of attendance.
The aim is a planned, documented training year. Your spend is then recorded in a form your SDF and verifier can assess against the element, rather than disappearing without a trace.
Delivery formats
Choose the format that fits your teams:
- In-house at your premises, built around your own systems and real scenarios.
- At BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, for teams that prefer to train away from the office.
- Live online, instructor-led and interactive, for distributed, multi-branch and hybrid teams.
Head office and regional teams can train to one standard and feed a single skills development record.
Accreditation
This guide to the B-BBEE scorecard is for information only and is not itself a qualification. BOTI (Business Optimization Training Institute) is a QCTO-accredited Skills Development Provider, holds Services SETA accreditation 12582 for legacy qualifications, and is a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor.
Where you need credits, choose a QCTO occupational certificate, part-qualification or skills programme. Where you need fast competence rather than credits, practical short courses carry a certificate of attendance. Either way, attendance and outcomes are documented so the training can be recorded in your Annual Training Report (ATR).
Legacy SETA qualifications have different enrolment and completion dates. The final Directive on legacy qualifications was published in Government Gazette 54858 on 17 June 2026[2]. Check the qualification’s SAQA record, and confirm current status for the specific programme when you book.
Funding: Skills Development Levy, grants and B-BBEE points
As general guidance:
- Employers above the threshold pay the Skills Development Levy (SDL) at 1% of payroll[3]. Read more in our guide to the Skills Development Levy.
- You can claim back 20% of the levies paid as a mandatory grant. This applies when you submit your Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR) to your SETA by 30 April and your levy payments are up to date. Unclaimed mandatory grant money moves to discretionary funding by 15 August[4].
- SETAs also offer discretionary grants. These are applied for separately and are not guaranteed.
- The B-BBEE skills development target is measured against 6% of the leviable amount[1]. Planned, documented training of black employees is what the element measures.
On public tenders, the PPPFA 2022 regulations score bids against “specific goals”, such as HDI ownership (race, gender and disability) and RDP objectives, rather than a generic B-BBEE level. The Public Procurement Act 28 of 2024, which would have provided for set-asides, never came into force. On 17 September 2026 the Constitutional Court declared the whole Act invalid[5]. Public procurement still runs under the PFMA, the MFMA, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) and the Preferential Procurement Regulations, 2022, and Parliament may pass a new procurement law. This is general information, not financial or legal advice. Confirm specifics with your SETA, SDF or B-BBEE verification professional.
Why BOTI
BOTI is a QCTO-accredited South African corporate training provider with 450 courses and a Google rating of 4.8 from more than 770 reviews. Its client base includes Sasol, Glencore and the City of Johannesburg. One partner can deliver the training that feeds your skills development element, with the attendance and assessment records to support it.
Improving your scorecard is rarely one course. Most clients build a plan from across these pages:
- Understanding B-BBEE skills development: the pillar guide to how training maps to the skills development element.
- Skills development calculation for the B-BBEE scorecard: how the target and spend are worked out.
- Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) Training Course: training for the person who owns your WSP, ATR and SETA reporting.
- What is a Workplace Skills Plan (WSP): the plan behind both your mandatory grant claim and your training records.
- B-BBEE learnerships and your scorecard: the learnership and absorption lines of the element.
- Accredited course catalogue: QCTO programmes and legacy SETA qualifications.
Frequently asked questions
What is the B-BBEE scorecard?
The B-BBEE scorecard is the points-based tool in the Amended Codes of Good Practice that measures a business’s contribution across five elements: ownership, management control, skills development, enterprise and supplier development, and socio-economic development. Your total score sets your recognition level from Level 1 (highest) to Level 8. Sector codes adjust the weightings and targets, so confirm which code applies to your business.
What are the five B-BBEE scorecard elements?
Ownership, management control, skills development, enterprise and supplier development, and socio-economic development. Ownership, skills development, and enterprise and supplier development are priority elements with sub-minimums, so falling short on any one of them discounts your overall level.
How does skills development training count on the B-BBEE scorecard?
Training feeds the skills development element, which measures spend on developing black employees against a target of 6% of the leviable amount, plus learnerships, internships, apprenticeships and absorption. Whether a specific spend counts is decided at verification, so train the right employees, keep attendance and outcome records, and report the training in your Annual Training Report.
Does BOTI do B-BBEE verification?
No. Verification is carried out by an accredited B-BBEE verification agency, not by a training provider. BOTI delivers corporate training, QCTO skills programmes and occupational certificates, and keeps attendance and assessment records that your SDF can include in your verification file.
Is the 6% skills development target based on payroll?
It is set against the leviable amount, which is the remuneration figure used to calculate the Skills Development Levy, so use that figure rather than an internal payroll total. The levy itself is a separate 1% of payroll. Confirm the calculation with your SDF or B-BBEE verification professional. This is general guidance, not financial or legal advice.
Plan your training with BOTI
To help your managers, HR team and SDF understand how the scorecard works and where training fits, book BOTI’s Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Fundamentals Training. This course is not accredited. It is delivered as a professional skills programme, and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
Training runs in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or live online. Call BOTI on 011 882 8853 or email [email protected], or request a quote and a BOTI consultant will scope a training plan around your skills development element.
Sources
- Codes of Good Practice on B-BBEE: Code Series 300, Statement 300 – Skills Development (Government Gazette 42496) – Department of Trade and Industry, 31 May 2019.
- Directive on the implementation of transitional arrangements for pre-2009 qualifications (Government Gazette 54858) – Minister of Higher Education and Training, 17 June 2026.
- Skills Development Levy – South African Revenue Service (SARS), 2026.
- Mandatory Grants – Health and Welfare SETA (HWSETA), 2026.
- Godongwana notes Constitutional Court judgment on Public Procurement Act – SAnews (South African Government News Agency), 18 September 2026.