Employed learnerships lay the foundation of a learning culture within the business, says Anton Visser, chief operations officer of Alefbet Learning. This is part one of a two-part series.
Anton Visser, chief operations officer of Alefbet Learning. Image supplied by Alefbet Learning.
Many South African corporate organisations spend millions of rands on learnerships as a tick-box, compliance exercise to gain B-BBEE points, without alignment to the business strategy. It’s a massive lost opportunity to leverage the real power of employed learnerships – which can and should be customised for the needs of the business and employees – to achieve a true competitive advantage through meaningful career and skills progression, that takes the business and its people forward.
Employed learnerships help to meet the specific requirements of the workplace and the career ambitions of your employees, creating well-rounded candidates who have a good grasp of all the work processes. What better business success story is there to tell than having a pool of talent coming through, building your succession and skills pipeline?
When it comes to employed learnerships, many employers are not aware that learnerships can and should be customised for the needs of the business and its people. With the right L&D partner, every learnership can be customised to the business strategy, as long as it meets the requirements in terms of notional hours and the formative and summative assessments. Employed learnerships benefit the company and employee’s personal growth and development, and it leads to an NQF registered qualification.
Learnership benefits for employers and employees
For employees, it’s an opportunity to earn an income while learning new skills and gaining valuable workplace experience, to earn a recognised qualification which adds to their value and employability, and leads to an improvement in morale, self-esteem, personal development and confidence.
For employers, employed learnerships raise current employee skill levels, and heightened skills lead to more productivity and more engaged employees. Skilled employees tend to work more independently and need less supervision and have greater problem-solving capabilities. They will also be more engaged and committed to a business and employer that invests in their professional development. The more skilled your employees become, the more meaningful their contribution to the business’ competitiveness and that of our country at large. Finally, employers can achieve all the added benefit of tax incentives and an improved B-BBEE scorecard.
Continued in Part 2…
