SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: TURNING GRUDGES INTO VALUE

The mere thought of skills development is enough to reinforce every possible objection against the topic.  Typical objections to skill development are: 

·         The cost of some programs outstrip its content

·         There is no real-world application

·         Learners have a good time at the company’s expense and return just to fall back in old habits

·         There is no use for skills development

 

Companies take a view that they have to offer skills development programs because it is required by law or by best practice to do so.  Often skills development programs are just a means to gain sufficient points so that a company can maintain a certain Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment score for the next financial year.   

Thus, skills development programs are seen a grudge purchases by industry.  This means that industry is not able to see the actual value of a skills development program in their organisations.  Certainly, from a sustainability perspective, skills development programs are, in our view, one of the most underrated career management tools that companies have in their possession. 

Putting the tax breaks (R 60 000-00 per learner per year) and the SETA grants aside, one of the main benefits of a skills development program is that is generates a pool of candidates that could be promoted to more senior positions within a company.  Skills development can be a valuable road marker on an employee’s career path.   

There are a number of reasons why skills development programs should be taken more seriously than is usually the case.

 

·         The days, that employees and employers can be satisfied with no qualifications or outdated qualifications, are over.

·         Clearly, a degree that was obtained in 1990 could be based on a theoretical framework that may no longer be applicable to industry

o   Employees could be promoted or moved into a role where previous qualifications may not be sufficient

o   A Human Resources practitioner could move into a labour relations role and needs to obtain a new set of skills

o   A Bookkeeper may move into the role of Financial Manager

o   A good artisan may move into a first line management role or into a middle management role

·         Organisations transform and are faced with new operational requirements

·         Recruiting from a known pools of resources, flattens learning curves

·         Recruiting from known pools of resources reduces time to socialise into the organisation 

Today’s reality is that freshly-ground graduates from universities have theoretical knowledge and no practical aptitude to apply that knowledge.  Observations over the past thirty years have shown that the freshly-ground graduate may not always the answer to a company’s staffing needs.  Like Henry Mintzberg, we believe that employees that gain experience before they enrol into an academic program add significant more value that the freshly-grounds. 

Certainly, in the case of business management, bookkeeping, office management, there is no reason why employees can gain qualifications through a skills development program.  They already know the intricate workings of their organisations and there are no better opportunity to educate those veterans through a skills development program to become tomorrow’s leaders.

This is the official blog of:

This is the official blog of:

Visit us at www.skopus.co.za

And

Visit us at www.growthinstitute.co.za

Contact us for more information about or skills development offerings

 

 

An Educated Workforce is a Powerful Workforce

Sustainable businesses make sure that they pay attention to scarce skills.

Four classes of scarce skills can make a difference in any company’s competitiveness:

·         A pool of administration excellence

·         A pool of accounting excellence

·         A pool of management excellence

·         A pool of technical excellence

The contemporary business landscape’s mantra to success is “Grow your own wood”.

Companies who are able to educate their own employees will gain significant competitive advantages.

Many employees desire further education but they are unable to afford the cost of education.

Other employees have incomplete qualifications but do not know how to take the next step.

Academic programs that combine practical experience and theory are known to deliver a better quality of worker than programs that focus on theory alone.  The modern business does not have time to spend between eighteen and twenty-four months training “freshly ground graduates” in its processes and procedures.  They find it more profitable to send “grizzled veterans” to college.

Qualifications that are recognised by professional bodies are highly sought after.

Registering employees to study through Growth Institute ensures that companies qualify for tax rebates and for SETA grants.

Contact us for an appointment

Jacques de Villiers (CEO)	jacques@growthinstitute.co.za
Peter van Nieuwenhuizen (CFO)	peter@growthinstitute.co.za

This is the official blog of:

·         Skopus Business Consultants.  Visit us at www.skopus.co.za

·         Growth Institute.  Visit us at www.growthinstitute.co.za

 

The New Face of Sustainability

Sustainability is not only about planet and profit.

Sustainability is also about people.

Data from the Global Competitiveness Index show that companies are experiencing the rapid decline of an educated workforce.

There is more pressure on South African businesses to “grow their own wood”.

The current workforce must be skilled up, and the future workforce must be identified and readied to step into the workplace as seamlessly as possible.

Four classes of scarce skills can make a difference in any company’s competitiveness:

• A pool of administration excellence
• A pool of accounting excellence
• A pool of management excellence
• A pool of technical excellence

Growth Institute is able to assist our clients to:

• Improve the skills of the current workforce
• Identify scarce skills potential amongst the children of employees
• Offer study programs that can close the scarce skills gap

Qualifications that are recognised by professional bodies are highly sought after.
Registering employees to study through Growth Institute ensures that companies qualify for tax rebates and for SETA grants.

Contact us for an appointment.

Jacques de Villiers (CEO)   jacques@growthinstitute.co.za
Peter van Nieuwenhuizen (CFO)   peter@growthinstitute.co.za

Academic Year 2014

Skopus Business Consultants and Workplace Integrated Training Solutions (PTY) Ltd announce the forming of Growth Institute (PTY) Ltd.

Growth Institute is a proponent of Corporate Education.  Taking a long-term view that ensures the development of a sustainable workforce is one of the main pillars in Growth Institute’s educational philosophy.  An explicit Pull Push Model provides Growth Institute’s clients to develop latent talent pools within their organisations.

Figure 1: Our Pull-Push Model

Growth Institute focuses on school leavers and employees that do not have “traditional” means to acquire post-school qualifications.  Our unique intervention model helps clients to mine talent and to pay attention to the development and retention of scarce management and technical skills.

More details available from

peter@growthinstitute.co.za

jacques@growthinstitute.co.za

The Promise of 2014

Now that the summer holiday is over and the hype of the matric results is dominating the news, it is time to reflect on what 2014 may hold. 

News bulletins and talk radio content are full of scary stories about the youth not having a future.  Questionable education quality, the bad economy, unemployment, poverty, the inflexible labour policies of Government, donation fatigue and many other factors are quoted as factors that make the plight of the youth unbearable.  In addition, each year we hear about universities being flooded with angry mobs who demand acceptance in an academic program.  Our minds roll back to that day when a mother was trampled to death at the University of Johannesburg and we wag angry fingers are a system that seems to have more failure than success. 

As we are writing this blog, a radio station bleats in the background about youth entrepreneurship and the fact that the National Credit Act is failing youth who want to start a business because they cannot get a business start-up loan. 

In the same breath, the radio station bleats that more of the youth should become artisans.  Moreover, many re-bleat to say that the quality of artisan training leaves much to be desired.  They also bleat that there is a stigma regarding artisan training.  In fact, some voices that we encounter in our practice insist that artisan training and possible apprenticeships harks back to the old Apartheid years. 

Perhaps it is time to reconsider the situation. 

Instead of demanding interventions from a Government that is stressed beyond breakdown, it may be time to ask what else the country could do to rectify the situation.  It is true that some matriculants have low marks that do not allow them access to traditional tertiary education streams.  It is also true that many cannot afford tertiary education even though they have very good marks.  These arguments serve as a handy excuse to avoid the real issues of getting people into the job market. 

Once again, our practice often hears employers speaking about “growing our own wood”.  Our question to those employers who bandy around that noise byte is simply:

“What does it mean to grow your own wood?” 

The standard answer is that company wants to develop their employees and to promote employees into jobs instead of appointing someone from the outside into a job.  For us, another question emerges: 

“What do employees do with the saplings around them?” 

In other words, what do employers do to provide the children of employees to get access to good education and to become part of the future workforce of that employer? 

Perhaps it is time for the employers in this country to study the life and work of Milton Hershey and to transform this country into a modern day Hersheyville. 

Companies are quick to brag about Corporate Social Investment programs that make them look good or feel good.  The question, however, is how sustainable or fashionable such programs are and whether such programs really make a difference in growing the many saplings of today into the mighty forests of tomorrow. 

It is time for employers to unlock the potential of these young saplings. 

That is one of the main reasons why Skopus Business Consultants joined forces with Workplace Integrated Training Solutions to form the Growth Institute.  Growth will focus specifically on working with clients to unlock the potential that surrounds them and to ensure that Workforce 2026 is not a nightmare. 

This is the official blog of Skopus Business Consultants.  Visit us at www.skopus.co.za