W&RSETA’s Response to COVID-19 on Skills

W&RSETA’S RESPONSE TO IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN THE WHOLESALE AND RETAIL SECTOR

Government has implemented several measures as part of its strategy to provide relief to vulnerable individuals, workers and employers due to the COVID-19 national lockdown.

These measures include tax relief, the release of disaster relief funds, emergency procurement, wage support through the UIF and funding for small businesses. One of the tax relief measures that has been implemented is the four-month Skills Development Levy contribution holiday for companies. This has resulted in a direct impact on the SETAs’ revenue. The W&RSETA has projected a revenue reduction of 45% of its budgeted income of R1, 44 billion for the 2020/2021 financial year.

As a result of these developments, the W&RSETA has revised its 2020/2021 Annual Performance Plan (APP) to prioritise initiatives that will respond to the impact of COVID-19 on the Wholesale and Retail Sector. The APP targets have been revised from 69 targets to 42.

The revised APP has prioritised the following key focus areas: • Job retention for employees through re-skilling or multitasking of activities for possible changes in business processes. • Increase the number of skills programmes to address the re-skilling and multi-skilling of employees to adapt to new business processes and COVID-19 requirements. • Implement a project to train 600 graduates which will assist companies with the screening of customers and learners and health and hygiene management at wholesale and retail companies over a 12-month period. • Increase the number of learners completing programmes. • Assist vulnerable youth to gain access to opportunities for education, training and employment. • Support vulnerable sectors of the economy, particularly

SMMEs, informal traders, cooperatives and NGOs. • Implement reasonable accommodation measures to support the sector with COVID-19 regulations, including the provision of Personal Protective Equipment and through the C19 TERS.

The revised 2020/21 APP will be communicated to stakeholders once approved.

Following numerous suggestions, comments and concerns from stakeholders, the W&RSETA has revised its implementation roadmap in line with the input from the sector. The roadmap has been revised as follows: • Applications for funding will close on 30 June 2020 to allow for effective planning and allocation of funding. No extension requests will be considered. • The W&RSETA will implement new funding processes from 1 November 2020 to allow stakeholders and training providers access to funding opportunities aimed at addressing possible shortfalls on some programmes as a result of non-uptake by stakeholders. • Allocated funding that is not utilised by stakeholders will be repurposed to prioritise COVID-19 interventions and support programmes. • Stakeholders are also encouraged to prioritise the implementation of 2019/20 contracts and to register learners by no later than 30 June 2020. • Stakeholders that may not meet the revised timelines are encouraged to rather focus on the implementation of current projects, i.e. PIVOTAL 2018/19 and PIVOTAL 2019/20.