HRDC Engages Levy Payers

In an effort to establish reasons that could possibly substantiate the low uptake of the Training Levy, HRDC engaged Levy Payers during a breakfast meeting held on the 1st November, 2016 at Avani Hotel in Gaborone. Addressing the top 100 Levy Payers who are significantly contributing towards the Levy, Dr Thapelo Matsheka, the HRDC Board Member and Chairperson of the Funding Committee, implored them to fully utilise the Training Levy. In welcoming them he stated, “HRDC is responsible for ensuring that citizens acquire relevant skills that will make them globally competitive and assist Botswana’s economy to transit from resource-base to a knowledge-base.

It is important for HRDC to ensure that funds collected are utilised for skills development hence the need to engage in this type of interactive platform. He indicated that there are currently about 11 000 Levy payers and on average 2 000 companies (15%) are the only ones claiming for reimbursement of the training costs from the Training Levy Fund. Dr Matsheka encouraged work - places to only embark on training that is needed by the Country. The training programmes must be aligned to the national skills priorities.

Ms Doreen Kokorwe, Manager, Work - Place Learning gave a presentation on the importance of work - place learning. The presentation particularly underscored skills development, acquisition and transfer of skills for employees as key to enhanced work ethic and productivity. She encouraged Levy Payers to utilise the Training Levy through partnerships with the industry (stakeholders) and embark on work - place training. She said, “When talking about the issue of promoting partnerships with the industry, I wish to highlight that industry must have ownership of work - place learning and earnestly implement workplace training. I encourage work-places to embark on training that will ultimately ensure that relevant skills are developed and are aligned to the needs of the industry”.

Mr Ndiwo Makula, Manager, HRDF Claims Assessor accentuated that, the purpose of the HRDF is to reimburse companies or Levy Payers for costs incurred on training their employees. While clarifying a question from one of the Levy Payers regarding the Training Levey collection processes he stated, “The Training Levy is collected by Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) based on the Value Added Tax threshold and HRDC manages the Fund. The purpose of the Fund is to facilitate funding of the education and training sector”.

Furthermore, he also cautioned the Levy Payers to be vigilant and avoid Training Providers that charge them exorbitant fees for training. He further implored them to exercise financial prudence when deciding on training costs. He encouraged Levy Payers to engage HRDC in assessing the Training Providers. He said, “Where there is need for further clarification, Levy Payers must contact the Work – Place Learning unit at HRDC who will then Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) to ascertain the training provider’s credibility and ensure that the programmes of training identified, and the Trainers are both accredited by BQA”. The return on investment (ROI) should corroborate value for money realisation.

Some of the challenges highlighted by the Levy payers during the discussions included: cash-flow problems arising from their perception of double payment (i.e. paying the Training Providers for facilitating the required training yet having already paid towards the levy); and protracted delays in processing of claims that adversely affect their liquidity. Mr. Makula explained that as HRDC they are working hard to improve the efficiency of the claims processing and they want to reduce the turnaround time to six weeks.

During the interactive breakfast meeting, some of the Levy payers shared their challenges which stem from the dual accreditation process.  They stated that Trainer’s dual accreditation requirement is a hindrance towards realisation of their employees’ skills development. Some of the identified programmes they want to train their employees on, need dual accreditation.

They lamented on this as being costly and time-consuming as in most cases Trainers are required to be both accredited by Botswana Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA) and BQA. Ms Kebabonye Molosiwa, Manager, Claims Assessor in responding to their concerns highlighted, “An Accountant’s accreditation requirement by BICA is premised on monitoring and regulation of the Trainer’s profession which assures that they are indeed competent whilst BQA assesses whether that Accountant has the capacity to train other learners”.

Giving the closing remarks, “Dr Raphael Dingalo, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HRDC indicated, “Our responsibility as HRDC is to provide for policy advice on all matters of human resource development. We have heard your concerns; we appreciate your attendance; as our critical stakeholders I wish to point out that your feedback is valuable to us as we continue to mitigate ways of improve on service delivery”.  He further said, “HRDC is in the process of automating its processes to enable customers, clients and stakeholders to be served better. We are fully aware of the levy claims manual workflow challenges and we are looking forward to automating claims processes. The processes will ultimately define and streamline our HRDF business processes”.

This means, once automation is in place HRDC, will eliminate time consuming processes emanating from the manual ‘checks and balances’. We will realign process steps to optimise the flow of information throughout the claims process. This adjustment of processes will distill our operational performance and reduce the turnaround times. This initiative will improve stakeholder relations (HRDC and Levy Payers). “Our goal is to automate as many manual processes as possible. Claims submissions will be made at a click of a button’’ proudly said Dingalo.

We encourage the Levy payers to familiarise themselves with the Sector Committees as they are think tanks in addressing the challenges of supply and demand. “We shall triple our efforts to engage further on the challenges brought forward by our stakeholders” concluded Dingalo.

News Date: 
Tuesday, November 1, 2016