Skills Development Act (eLegal)

Skills Development Act at a glance

• The Act: Skills Development Act 97 of 1998, as amended, including by the Employment Services Act 4 of 2014.
• Purpose: to develop the skills of the South African workforce, increase investment in training, and encourage employers to use the workplace as an active learning environment.
• SETAs: Sector Education and Training Authorities develop sector skills plans, approve workplace skills plans and annual training reports, and allocate grants to employers (section 10).
• Learnerships: structured learning plus work experience, leading to a registered qualification, under an agreement between learner, employer and an accredited provider (sections 16 and 17).
• Skills programmes: occupationally based programmes that count as credits towards a registered qualification, and may be funded by a SETA grant (section 20).
• Funding: the skills development levy finances the system. 20% of levies go to the National Skills Fund (section 27).
• QCTO: the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations sets occupational standards and qualifications.
• Penalties: offences under the Act carry a fine or up to 1 year’s imprisonment (section 34).
• Does your training count for B-BBEE? Practical workplace training may count towards your Skills Development score. See how ›

A quick summary only. The full Act gives the detail.