Is Your Training Provider SETA Accredited?

Would you let an uncertified accountant lose on your financials? Or a disbarred lawyer handle your companies affairs? Or even hire a employee without good references? Why?

Because quality assurance is your guarantee of trust in any business exchange, as the Skills Development Administrator at the SETA-accredited Siyandza Skills Development, explains, you are entitled to the same assurance when training your staff.

In 2000, the Department of Labour, led by then Minister Membathisi Mdladlana, established 25 Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs). As laid out in the Skills Development Act, the intention was to address the South African skills shortage by building up a work force with the relevant training. Nine years down the line, these SETAs play vital roles in their respective industries and in the larger economy, most noticeably by setting standards that distinguish reputable institutions from their ‘fly-by-night’ counterparts.

Siyandza Skills Development is a call centre and middle management training provider that recognises the value of quality assurance for its clients and their staff by ensuring that the standards set by the relevant SETA are met and surpassed.

"First and foremost, being SETA-accredited means that we provide training programs according to the standards set out in the relevant National Qualifications Framework (NQF) legislation," says Haremakale Ramakhetheng, the Skills Development Administrator for Siyandza Skills Development. "It also means that we are recognised – and trusted – in the market as providing best practices. It is a standard now. The first question clients ask us now is: are you SETA accredited?’"

The national framework specifies that all learning programs must be outcomes-based and learner-centred, taking the learners’ needs as first priority. Siyandza Skills Development prides itself on being the only "operationalised" training provider in South Africa to fully actualise the potential of outcomes-based education (OBE) by tailoring its learning programs to the specific operating environments of its clients. OBE allows for learners to learn while working. Says Ramakhetheng, "They learn in a classroom environment for, say, three consecutive days and then return to the workplace. There they apply what they have learnt, while we monitor them, provide learner support and assess them."

Choosing a credible, SETA-accredited training provider has other benefits for companies, their staff and even for the larger economy:

Companies that increase their capacity by training or assessing their staff through a SETA-accredited provider are entitled to a refund on a substantial percentage of their skills levy, as well as to grants set out in the Skills Development Act. These same companies are also given the opportunity to be involved in learnerships which provide learners with valuable work experience and employers with an eager and ready-to-learn work force.

In the broader interests of skills development, each SETA also provides free training to accredited training providers, for example in the positions of assessor and moderator. This allows each provider to develop the skills of their own staff, who in turn are going to impact on the productivity of their clients’ staff in a ripple effect that bodes well for the future of the South African economy.

So, does your training provider have the guarantee of trust that SETA-accreditation provides? Siyandza Skills Development does.