Many companies begrudge the time and effort required to comply with new legislation, particularly when they are as tightly linked as the Employment Equity, Skills Development Act, NQF (National Qualifications Framework), SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) and the Labour Relations Act.
However, JSE-listed IT group CS Holdings` training division, CS Education Solutions, is upbeat about the rigorous process it has undergone to meet with these requirements.
"The most positive outcome from this exercise is that, in the process of re-examining our entire business, we have increased the number of value-added services to clients and improved our own business strategies and training programmes," says CS Education Solutions MD, Dr Madelise Grobler.
"The benefits to clients are manifold. Firstly, as an interim-approved ISETT (Information Systems, Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies) training company, we have submitted documentation on all our processes and, in particular, on our quality control procedures. As a result, our clients are assured that they will receive a professional service.
"Secondly, because they trained with an ISETT-approved training centre they know the courses they take are NQF-aligned, except where NQF standards have not yet been finalised. This assists them in completing their skills plan report-back as required by the Skills Development Act.
"An added advantage is that we already have trained assessors and Skills Development Facilitators, so we can assist clients with their assessment process or their Workplace Skills Plan. In addition, the fact that we dedicate resources to monitoring the progress of the new legislation means we are also ideally situated to advise clients and help them with compliance," says Grobler.
For the past two years, CS Education Solutions has been actively involved in contributing towards and monitoring the development of NQF. Two key staff members have been trained as assessors and this training will be rolled out to all relevant staff throughout the country.
Grobler notes that this is an ongoing process that will evolve in sophistication over the next few years. "We understand the need to grow the people of South Africa and so we made a commitment two years ago to become involved with developments on the education legislation front. As a result, we are ideally placed to continue amending our training courses and methodologies as and when new sections of the NQF structures are finalised.
"The recent amalgamation of the four major training divisions of CS Holdings into CS Education Solutions helped us tremendously. Merging desktop training with systems, ERP and telecommunications training made us re-evaluate and streamline business processes. This meant we were already deeply involved in analysing and changing our business. We are one of the few South African companies that can offer virtually the entire spread of IT training, from entry-level to power-user level on a variety of platforms."
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