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A learning and development (L&D) strategy is your organisation’s plan for building the skills the business needs. It links the training you fund to your business goals, your Workplace Skills Plan and your B-BBEE skills development spend. In South Africa the same plan is often called a skills development strategy. Good L&D services help you build it and then deliver the training that closes the gaps, from learning and development and ETDP courses for your L&D team to programmes for every other function.
Without a strategy, training happens by request and is renewed out of habit. With one, every rand you spend develops the capabilities your plans depend on. This guide is for HR and L&D leads, business owners and department heads who book training but suspect it is not adding up to anything. It covers what an L&D strategy is, the problem it solves, what it covers, how to build one, how BOTI delivers the training, the accreditation routes, and how a strategy supports your skills development and B-BBEE position.
The business problem: you train, but it does not add up to a capability
Most South African organisations spend real money on training every year, and most cannot say what capability that spend is building. Courses get booked when a manager asks, or when budget needs to be used before year-end. Delegates attend, the feedback sheets come back fine, and next year the cycle repeats. Nobody is steering.
Having no strategy creates predictable problems:
- Training is reactive, not planned. Courses are booked to fix yesterday’s problem, not to build the skills next year’s plans need.
- Spend is fragmented. Money goes to whoever asks loudest, so it never builds up into a capability the business can rely on.
- Nothing sticks. One-off courses with no follow-through fade within weeks, because no learning culture reinforces them.
- The budget is exposed. Development spend you cannot tie to business goals is the first line cut when margins tighten.
- Compliance is a scramble. Without a plan, the Workplace Skills Plan and the B-BBEE scorecard are put together in a rush instead of following from planned development.
A learning and development strategy addresses each of these. It connects what you train to where the business is going and concentrates spend where it matters. It also builds a culture where developing people is part of how the organisation works, not an occasional event.
Who this is for
This guide is for South African organisations developing their own staff and teams, not a study path for individuals. It suits:
- HR and L&D managers who own the training budget and want it to build a coherent capability rather than fund scattered requests.
- Business owners and MDs of SMEs who know their growth depends on people but have no plan for developing them.
- Department and operations managers who want their teams’ training aligned to the results they are measured on.
- Skills Development Facilitators (SDFs) who need the WSP, ATR and B-BBEE scorecard to follow from a real strategy, not a year-end scramble.
No formal L&D qualification is needed to use the approach below. It is practical, and BOTI can help you turn the strategy into the training programmes that deliver it.
What L&D teams and L&D services do
In a larger organisation, the L&D team owns the strategy and the training calendar. In a smaller one, the role usually sits with HR or the SDF. Either way, the work covers the same ground:
- Agreeing with leadership which capabilities the business needs.
- Running skills-gap and training needs analyses.
- Choosing and booking training.
- Supporting managers to reinforce learning on the job.
- Keeping the records that feed the Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report.
- Reporting on whether training changed anything.
External L&D services fill the gaps an internal team cannot cover alone, most often by designing and delivering training, and by building the skills of the L&D team itself.
What a learning and development strategy covers
A learning and development strategy is not a long document that sits in a drawer. It is a working plan that answers a handful of questions and drives your training calendar. The core building blocks are:
| Element | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Business alignment | Which capabilities does our strategy need over the next 1–3 years, and which do we have or lack? |
| Skills-gap analysis | Where are the gaps between the skills we have and the skills we need, by team and role? |
| Learning priorities | Which gaps matter most to the business, and where will training give the biggest return? |
| Delivery and modalities | How will we develop people: formal courses, on-the-job learning, coaching, blended or online? |
| Learning culture | How do we make development a habit, supported by managers and reinforced after the course? |
| Budget and funding | How does spend map to the Skills Development budget, mandatory grants and the B-BBEE skills development element? |
| Compliance integration | How does the plan feed the Workplace Skills Plan, Annual Training Report and scorecard? |
| Measurement | How will we know the strategy is working, and which behaviours and metrics should move? |
Many L&D teams use the 70:20:10 model as a rule of thumb. Roughly 70% of development comes from doing the work, 20% from other people (coaching, mentoring, feedback) and 10% from formal courses. Treat it as a guide, not a measured ratio. The point is that formal training starts the learning, and the workplace and managers make it stick. That is why a learning culture matters more than a course catalogue.
Want help turning this into a training plan? Phone 011 882 8853 or request a quote. You can also ask BOTI to help you set out your skills gaps and map training to your business goals and skills budget.
A simple process to build your strategy
You do not need a consultancy to build a workable learning and development strategy. Here is a repeatable process:
- Start with the business goals. Write down what the organisation is trying to achieve over the next one to three years (growth, new markets, better service, a transformation target) and the capabilities each goal needs.
- Map current skills. Assess what your teams can do now, by role, against what those goals require. Manager input and simple competency checks are usually enough to start.
- Identify and prioritise gaps. Name the gaps, then rank them by business impact. You cannot close everything at once, so concentrate on what moves the strategy.
- Choose how to develop each gap. Match each priority to the right mix of formal training, coaching, mentoring and on-the-job practice.
- Build a learning culture. Get managers to reinforce learning, build development into one-on-ones, and give people time and permission to apply new skills.
- Link to budget and compliance. Align the plan to your Skills Development budget, your Workplace Skills Plan and your B-BBEE scorecard, so funding and reporting follow from real development.
- Measure and adjust. Track the behaviours and metrics the training should move, and revise the plan as the business changes. The Measuring Results from Training course shows L&D teams how to do this.
Built this way, your training calendar stops being a list of requests. It becomes a planned route to the capabilities your business needs.
Delivery formats
Once the strategy sets the priorities, BOTI delivers the training that closes the gaps, in the format that fits your teams:
- In-house at your premises. This is the easiest way to align training to your strategy, your real work examples and your culture.
- At BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg. This suits teams that prefer to learn away from daily interruptions.
- Live online, instructor-led. This works well for distributed and multi-branch teams: no travel, and fully interactive sessions.
Online and in-house delivery mean head-office and branch teams can develop to the same standard, against the same strategy.
Accreditation
BOTI (Business Optimization Training Institute) is a QCTO-accredited Skills Development Provider and a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor. It also holds Services SETA accreditation (12582) for legacy unit-standard qualifications. Where your strategy needs credit-bearing outcomes, there are two accredited routes:
- QCTO occupational certificates and skills programmes. For staff who will run L&D in your organisation, the Occupational Certificate: Learning and Development Advisor is the accredited route. Occupational certificates end in an External Integrated Summative Assessment (EISA), and the QCTO issues the certificate. Skills programmes end in a Final Integrated Supervised Assessment (FISA) run by BOTI, and the QCTO issues the certificate.
- Legacy Services SETA qualifications. BOTI’s SETA qualifications in management and business administration can still take new learners until their last date for enrolment. For the Services SETA qualifications BOTI offers, that date is 30 June 2028, with completion by 30 June 2031.[1][2] Dates differ per qualification, so check the SAQA record before you enrol.
Where you need fast, targeted competence, a practical non-accredited programme with a BOTI certificate of attendance is often the better fit. Either way, attendance and outcomes are documented, so the training can be recorded in your Annual Training Report (ATR) as planned staff development. Tell us your accreditation and reporting objectives, and we will recommend the right structure for the strategy.
Funding: a strategy strengthens your skills development case
A learning and development strategy does more than improve performance. It also strengthens your funding and compliance position, because the skills development system is built around planned, documented training. As general guidance only:
- Employers pay the Skills Development Levy (SDL) at 1% of the leviable amount (total remuneration). Employers whose leviable amount over the next 12 months will not exceed R500,000 are exempt.[3]
- Training delivered under a documented strategy is captured in your Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR). The mandatory grant pays back 20% of levies paid when the WSP/ATR is submitted by 30 April and your levies are up to date. Unclaimed mandatory grant money moves to discretionary funding by 15 August.[4] A clear plan makes that record easier to evidence and defend.
- The B-BBEE skills development targets are measured against the leviable amount, not payroll. Under the amended generic Codes, the targets are 3.5% on learning programmes for black people, 2.5% on bursaries for black students at higher education institutions, and 0.3% for black employees with disabilities.[5] Sector codes may differ. Planned, documented team training can count towards this element, especially when it develops staff in line with your transformation goals.
Where skills development supports tender readiness, note that public procurement still runs under the PFMA, the MFMA, the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA) and the Preferential Procurement Regulations, 2022. The Public Procurement Act 28 of 2024 never came into force. On 17 September 2026 the Constitutional Court declared the whole Act invalid, because Parliament did not allow reasonable public participation.[6] Parliament may pass a new procurement law. A coherent, well-documented learning strategy supports both your scorecard and your bid positioning. This is general information, not financial or legal advice; confirm the details with your SETA, SDF or B-BBEE verification professional.
Why BOTI
BOTI is a South African corporate training provider with 450 courses and a client base that includes Sasol, Glencore and the City of Johannesburg. That breadth matters for L&D strategy. Once you know which capabilities your business needs, BOTI can cover most gaps from a single, consistent provider: management, soft skills, finance, sales, HR, compliance, IT and technical. Training is practical and designed around the outcome you want to move, so people can apply it at work straight away.
A learning and development strategy works best when it draws on a few connected programmes. Clients often pair this thinking with:
- The full BOTI course range, to cover the gaps your strategy identifies across every discipline.
- Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) training, to structure your WSP, ATR and B-BBEE reporting around planned, documented delivery.
- Workplace essentials and soft skills training: the communication, EQ and people skills behind almost every capability gap.
- The Management and Leadership Development Training, so line managers can lead a learning culture and reinforce development after the course.
- Performance management training, to link development to the metrics and reviews you already run.
- Corporate training programmes and short courses: group delivery aligned to your strategy, with clean attendance and outcome records.
Not sure where to start? BOTI can help you map a learning path from your business goals to the mix of programmes that fits your structure and budget.
Frequently asked questions
What is a learning and development strategy?
A learning and development strategy is an organisation’s plan for building the skills its business goals require. It links training to those goals and identifies the skills gaps that matter most. It decides how to close them through formal courses, coaching, mentoring and on-the-job learning, and ties the spend to the Skills Development budget, Workplace Skills Plan and B-BBEE scorecard. The aim is to make people development deliberate rather than a series of disconnected courses.
What is a skills development strategy?
In South Africa, a skills development strategy is usually the same plan seen through the skills development system. It covers the training you plan in your Workplace Skills Plan, report in your Annual Training Report, fund partly through levy grants and count towards the B-BBEE skills development element. A well-built learning and development strategy gives you that plan, because the compliance documents follow from the development you have already decided on.
What do L&D teams and L&D services do?
L&D teams agree with leadership which capabilities the business needs, run skills-gap analyses, choose and book training, help managers reinforce learning, keep the records for the WSP and ATR, and report on whether training changed performance. External L&D services support this by designing and delivering training and by developing the skills of the L&D team itself.
Is BOTI accredited?
Yes. BOTI is a QCTO-accredited Skills Development Provider and holds Services SETA accreditation for legacy unit-standard qualifications. Accredited options include QCTO occupational certificates, QCTO skills programmes and Services SETA qualifications that are still open for enrolment. Many of BOTI’s short courses are non-accredited professional skills programmes with a certificate of attendance, so check the status of each course when you book.
Does training under our strategy count towards our skills development spend?
It can. Training delivered to your staff under a documented strategy is captured in your Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report, which supports your mandatory grant claim when you submit on time and your levies are up to date. It can also count towards the B-BBEE skills development element, which is measured against the leviable amount, not payroll. This is general guidance; confirm the details with your SETA, SDF or B-BBEE verification professional.
Request a quote
Stop booking training by request and start building the capabilities your business needs. Request a quote, and a BOTI consultant will help you map your skills gaps to a practical training plan across BOTI’s 450 courses.
To put your strategy into your WSP and ATR, start with 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
- Directive on the implementation of transitional arrangements for pre-2009 qualifications (Government Gazette 54858) – Minister of Higher Education and Training, 17 June 2026.
- Pre-2009 Extended Qualifications – South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), June 2026.
- Skills Development Levy – South African Revenue Service (SARS), 2026.
- Mandatory Grants – Health and Welfare SETA (HWSETA), 2026.
- 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.
- Godongwana notes Constitutional Court judgment on Public Procurement Act – SAnews (South African Government News Agency), 18 September 2026.