Don't forget to submit your workplace skills plan - your BEE score depends on it

Anton Visser, Chief Operations Officer of SA Business School & Alefbet Learning

Why Your WSP-ATR matters

Your WSP is more than just paperwork - it’s your roadmap for employee skills development and a key to unlocking the skills development component of the BBBEE Scorecard. A well-prepared WSP not only boosts business performance but also helps close the skills gap among historically disadvantaged groups, driving inclusive economic growth.

Your WSP-ATR isn’t just a formality - it’s vital to your business’s sustainability and competitiveness. Neglect it at your peril.

Who needs to submit a WSP & ATR?

If your company’s payroll exceeds R500k per annum, you must be registered to pay skills development levies (SDL). Submitting a WSP and ATR allows you to claim back 20% of the SDL via a grant from your Seta and, critically, secure 20 points on your BBBEE scorecard.

What is the WSP & ATR?

• WSP (workplace skills plan): Identifies the skills your workforce needs and outlines your training strategy for the coming financial year.
• ATR (annual training report): A record of all skills development initiatives completed in the current financial year, crucial for claiming BBBEE points.

Your ATR measures your training progress against the previous year’s WSP, making it a key indicator of skills development within your company.

Workplace Skills Plan deadline? What WSP deadline?

28 Jan 2020

Your WSP-ATR checklist: Get it right

To ensure a smooth submission, your WSP-ATR must include:

1. Current employee list
2. Employee list for previous training period
3. Total payroll figure
4. Comprehensive training completed summary
5. Proof of training completed
6. Comprehensive training plan
7. Proof of bank details
8. Registered SDF (skills development facilitator)
9. SDF appointment letter
10. Signed authorisation form
11. Hard-to-fill vacancies & reasons
12. Training committee members & ID numbers

The cost of not submitting

Miss the deadline, and your business takes a massive hit. Here’s what’s at stake:

• BBBEE level downgrade: Your business can earn up to 20 points for the skills development element on the B-BBEE scorecard – that’s two levels.

  The loss of the 20 skills development points by not submitting your WSP-ATR on time will see your BBBEE level drop by two levels – your level 2 gets demoted to level 4 – with serious repercussions for your current and future business opportunities especially in the government, corporate and public sectors. No submission, no points. And any grant linked to the WSP will then also be suspended for the following year until the submission window opens again.

  In essence you’re losing the benefits of two years of L&D investment, not just one.

• Lost grants: You’ll forfeit your mandatory grant which is 20% of your SDL spend to SARS - as well as any discretionary grants. This means losing invaluable opportunities to improve the skills of your own employees and your business competitiveness suffers as a result.
• Tender rejections: Many tenders require a WSP submission as a pre-qualifying criterion. No WSP? No chance of winning tenders.
• No retrospective claims: Any financial benefits of the training undertaken are permanently lost to you, as you cannot account for them retroactively or recoup any of the levies in the following financial year. The doors are closed in terms of the BBBEE scorecard points you could have claimed.

Benefits of submitting skills development, training reports

20 Feb 2024

The price of poor planning – a costly mistake

Picture this: A company spends over R900k on training and development during the year and starts with their BBBEE verification just a few weeks ahead of the WSP submission deadline.

However, the business has no WSP in place for the coming year, no skills audits were done, nor is there any documented ATR for their training spend. This means that not only is all their L&D investment for the current year lost in terms of their BBBEE points, but they will have to wait another year to submit their WSP.

The business then decides to register a rushed learnership programme rollout before their financial year-end to make up for the error in terms of their lost skills development spend - however this provides no benefit for the current year as the learnerships will not be implemented and completed before the Feb financial year-end – which means none of the spend will fall within the current financial year. Two levels on their BBBEE scorecard are wiped out with the loss of 20 points.

There’s another big opportunity cost. By not planning ahead and having their WSP in place, the business also loses the opportunity to implement learnerships for their own employees, which would have meant their employees could improve their skills and productivity, while the business could have allocated the spend on their learnership training AND the salaries of their employed learners towards their skills development spend!

Overall, the lack of planning and knee-jerk reaction to rectify it will cost the business three times more in L&D spend than necessary.

The HR and financial directors will find themselves in a tough spot accounting to their board for the gross oversight and lack of planning.

WSP-ATR: More than compliance – it’s a competitive edge

A WSP-ATR submission isn’t just about ticking boxes for BBBEE compliance. When done right, it’s a powerful strategic tool that helps businesses build a skilled workforce, gain competitive advantage, and drive economic transformation.

It’s time to ditch the last-minute scramble and start using WSPs to fuel business growth, create jobs, and develop real, in-demand skills.