An employee is one of an organisation’s most powerful tools in growing profit. Employees are the foundation of the company’s structure and should therefore be firmly rooted in knowledge and skill : an organisation’s employees need Skills Development. In South Africa, legislation around SKILLS DEVELOPMENT can be a serious minefield and there are many considerations when sourcing a professional skills training partner.  We provide our top 10 questions to ask your potential training service provider.

1. Is your COMPANY SETA (Sector education and Training Authority) Accredited

Training Service Providers can apply for accreditation against unit standards and/or qualifications registered on the NQF (National Qualification Framework) through their applicable SETA. If your service provider is indeed SETA accredited they will be able to provide proof of this via an Accreditation Letter which will list the accredited programmes along with an accreditation number.

Click here for an example.

2. What is your proof of scope for the proposed qualification

An accredited training provider should be able to provide SETA proof of scope for any accredited qualification.

3. How is the delivery of the programme structured and how does this fit in with our organisation?

Many organisations have policies and procedures around training and your service provider should be able to be sufficiently flexible to work around this creatively.

4. Are your delivery methods engaging and interactive?

Employees should feel part of a team during training, as they would in a workplace situation. They should be able to collaborate with each other, come up with answers in teams, be involved in healthy debate, and be placed in training situations that work to resolving problems collectively.

5. What Training Materials are provided?

Find out what whether your service provider will make use of their own training materials and documentation and what these contain. You may even request whether these could be branded with your own company branding, giving a feeling of “ownership” of the process to the employees during the training.

6. Who is the trainer/assessor for our programme?

Obtain a CV and all relevant information for the trainer/assessor proposed to be delivering your training programme. Consider requesting a one-on-one interview with the trainer directly to assess their “fit” with your employees.

7. Where is your training venue and what facilities are on offer?

The training environment is a very important aspect of successful delivery of a training programme. Employees must feel comfortable, safe and relaxed in order get the most benefit out of the training sessions. Ask whether the service provider offers on-site training, where they come to your premises. If training is only offered on their premises, it is advisable to visit the premises prior to engaging in a contract, to ascertain the venue fitness for your organisation requirements.

8. What will the programme cost?

Be sure to establish all costs, hidden and obvious, right at the outset. A poor outcome would be to end up with an account for “extras” such as training material, venue hire, equipment hire and more.

9. What references are available?

Any training service provider worth their salt will have at least one decent corporate reference to provide. Be sure to contact the reference and discuss all your questions and concerns with them. Ask about the outcome of the training and whether it has benefited your organisation in line with your objectives at the outset.

10. What are your Terms & Conditions imposed?

Don’t forget to read the fine print! As with any contract in any business environment, there should always be a set of standard terms & conditions affixed. These should be thoroughly scrutinised and questioned, if necessary, before acceptance.

If you have need any clarification on the questions above, or would like to discuss Skills Development Training in general, feel free to discuss these with us in a no-obligation appointment. Contact us today.