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Service 03 ยท Skills development and learnerships
Skills spend that stands up.
WSP and ATR in by 30 April, learnerships and YES planned properly, and evidence that each learner is real, enrolled once, attending and paid. Ready for your SETA and for your verification agency.
Who it is for
Employers, lead employers and programme owners
Skills work touches three things at once: the levy and grant cycle with your SETA, the skills development element of your B-BBEE scorecard, and the people on your programmes.
Levy-paying employers
The annual cycle
A workplace skills plan and annual training report that match what actually happened, submitted before 30 April so the mandatory grant stays on the table.
Output WSP and ATR
B-BBEE measured entities
The scorecard element
Skills development is a priority element with a 40% sub-minimum. A Generic entity must meet it, and a QSE must meet ownership plus one of skills development or enterprise and supplier development; missing a required sub-minimum drops the level by one. Training spend needs learner-level evidence behind it.
Output Skills evidence file
Lead employers and SETAs
Programme integrity
Learnerships and youth placements with clean records: one registration per learner, attendance kept, stipends paid, completions recorded.
Output Learner records and spend evidence
What you get
Plans, programmes and the proof behind them
- WSP and ATR. Prepared from your payroll and training records and submitted to your SETA before 30 April.
- Learnership planning. Which programmes fit your occupations, with QCTO-accredited providers through our specialist delivery partners.
- Legacy qualifications checked one by one. Enrolment and achievement dates now differ per qualification, so we check each one you rely on.
- YES planning. Whether a Youth Employment Service placement plan fits your business, and what it takes to meet the target and absorption conditions.
- Scorecard evidence. Skills spend organised the way your SANAS-accredited verification agency asks for it.
- Learner integrity checks. Every learner traced from registration to completion, with possible duplicates flagged for you to check.
What we need from you
Records you already keep
- Payroll summary and SDL payments for the year
- Your SETA registration and last WSP and ATR
- Training spend with invoices and proof of payment
- Learner list with learnership agreements and registration numbers
- Attendance registers and stipend payments
- Provider accreditation details
Learner records are personal information. Send them through the engagement under a signed agreement, never through this website.
Learnership integrity
23 554 learners in more than one SETA
In its 2022-23 PFMA audit outcomes, the Auditor-General reported 23 554 learners in multiple SETAs, alongside learners reported in multiple years, deceased learners, and ID numbers not found on the Home Affairs register.
Learnership spend is only as good as the evidence that each learner is real, enrolled once, attending and paid. That evidence protects your scorecard claim, your SETA submission and the learners themselves.
Source: Auditor-General of South Africa, PFMA 2022-23 national and provincial audit outcomes, 29 November 2023, higher education and training portfolio.
Deadlines and dates
The skills year
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 30 April | WSP and ATR to your SETA. Extensions are not guaranteed. |
| Before 1 April 2027 | Learnership agreements must be entered into by then to fall under the current section 12H allowance. No further extension has been announced as at November 2026. |
| Per qualification | Legacy qualification enrolment and achievement dates, published by SAQA |
For planning only. For the tax treatment of learnerships, speak to your tax practitioner.
Linked platform
Learnership and youth-spend tracker
Tracks learnerships from registration to completion across the lead employer, the provider and oversight, flags possible duplicate registrations, and keeps skills-development and YES spend evidence in one place.
A match is a flag to check, never a fraud finding, and every result names the SETAs checked. Available on request; the demo runs on synthetic data.
About the trackerYES, in general terms
Youth placements and your level
The Youth Employment Service places black youth aged 18 to 35 in 12-month paid roles that add to your existing headcount. Meeting the YES target with the required absorption can earn B-BBEE level recognition outside the scorecard, subject to the gazetted eligibility conditions. A YES placement cannot also be counted as a learnership.
We plan the placements and the evidence. The level recognised is for your verification agency to determine.
Questions
What employers ask first
When are the WSP and ATR due?
By 30 April each year, to the SETA you are registered with. Extensions are not guaranteed, so we plan to submit well before the date.
Are your programmes accredited?
New occupational programmes are QCTO-accredited and run through our specialist delivery partners, who are named to you in your engagement letter. Selected legacy qualifications have their own enrolment and achievement dates, which we check per qualification.
Does a learnership count for B-BBEE?
Skills spend on black learners can count under the skills development element, subject to the Codes and to verification. The evidence matters as much as the spend.
Can the tracker prove a learner is genuine?
It flags possible duplicates and gaps across the records it is given, and names the SETAs checked. A match is a flag for you to check, never a finding of fraud, and it does not give national clearance.
Do you advise on the 12H allowance?
No. We keep your learnership agreements and dates in order. For the tax deduction itself, speak to your tax practitioner.
What we do and don't do
We prepare. Your SETA and the verifier decide.
Your SETA receives your WSP and ATR and pays the mandatory grant. A SANAS-accredited verification agency assesses your skills element. We prepare the plans and the evidence with you.
Talk to a skills consultant
Tell us your SETA, your payroll band and how many learners you have on programmes.