From The Witness 23 August 2016
Edward West – Business Editor, Natal Witness
Many company owners are unaware of the benefits of structured learnership programmes, said Sandesh Singh, supply chain director at KPI Supply Chain Solutions, which is based in Pietermaritzburg.
The firm is the only Transport and Education Training Authority (Teta) private accredited training provider in supply chain solutions, in the city. Supply chain covers everything from the initial procurement of goods to the end usage of a customer.
Singh, who runs the company with business partner Kavita Sewlall, has more than 20 years of experience in the supply chain industry – he worked his way up through various levels of management, from starting out as an Inbound data capturer.
Singh said in an interview yesterday that having to create end-to-end supply chain solutions textbooks and train more than 20 lecturers last year made him realise they needed to include training as part of the services they offered.
KPI now offers a supply chain solutions package to its clients to reduce their costs and improve the skills level of the industry.
Supply chain is considered a scarce skill by government, and companies providing learnership programmes can benefit from Kpi’s mandatory training grant from Teta, or from Teta’s discretionary grants.
KPI offer a range of short courses in various sectors within the supply chain through mandatory grants.
The discretionary grant benefits include:
*The skills level in the company increases
*The skills level in the industry improves, efficiency improves, costs are lowered and the industry provides a better service for its customers.
* The pool of properly trained available staff in the industry increases
*Companies that provide accredited training programmes benefit in terms of their BEE scorecard
*There are tax incentives for companies that undertake learnerships
*The person receiving the training is getting skills that make them more marketable
Singh says typically training will last over a 12-month period, usually in stints that involved one week of theory training followed by three weeks of practical training.
Singh said many company owners also wrongly believe that the administration required to start a learnership programme is cumbersome and does not justify the expense.
In this respect, Kpi was there to assist every step of the way, said Singh.
He warned that there are literally hundreds of bogus training companies operating in the country, which offer training without the right accreditation, and which, in the end, offer little benefit for the student or their employer.