Skills development is the element of the scorecard most small businesses ignore, and the one where the money spent is most likely to come back — because you are being scored on training you would arguably benefit from anyway.
What is being measured
Broadly, spend on training your own people, weighted towards black employees, and towards recognised programmes rather than any course at all. There are also points attached to taking on learners and unemployed people through structured programmes.
It applies at scorecard level. Businesses small enough to use an affidavit are not scored on it at all, so this matters once you have grown past that threshold or if you are pursuing points deliberately.
The levy you may already be paying
Employers above a payroll threshold pay the skills development levy, and a portion of it is claimable back through a SETA against a workplace skills plan and an annual training report.
A great many small employers pay the levy and never claim anything, which is simply money left behind. The claim requires paperwork on a deadline rather than anything difficult, and your SETA will tell you what it wants.
Learnerships
Structured programmes combining work and formal training, leading to a qualification. They carry scorecard weight, they attract grant funding, and there are tax allowances attached to taking on learners.
They are also a genuine recruitment channel. A learner who works out is somebody you have trained in your own way of doing things and who already knows the business, which is worth considerably more than the points.
Do not buy points you do not need
An industry exists selling training whose main feature is that it scores. Some of it is good and some of it is a certificate.
The test is whether you would want the training if it counted for nothing. Where the answer is yes, the points are a bonus on something worth doing. Where the answer is no, you are buying a number, and your staff will know that is what happened.
Keep the records
Attendance, spend, accreditation of the provider, and the qualification or unit standards covered. Verification asks for evidence, and training that happened but was not documented cannot be counted.
This is the same discipline as everything else on the scorecard: the activity is the easy part and the evidence is what gets recognised.
General guidance, not legal, tax or B-BBEE advice. Levy thresholds, SETA processes and codes change; confirm the current position.