Business Skills for South Africa

Committed, knowledgeable trainers

BSSA accredits, utilises and supports existing independent service providers; a cost-effective and supportive approach. At present there are over 60 accredited trainers, who all run their own businesses as training providers, offering the BSSA programmes throughout South Africa. These trainers are all committed to BSSA’s ethics and methodologies. They are accredited according to their knowledge of small business management, facilitation of skills transfer and experience.

Experiential training

Training workshops are offered to groups of between 15 and 25 learners. The BSSA lesson material is characterised by its simple and straightforward handling of key business concepts critical to the success of owner-managers. From the outset, BSSA has taken special care to involve its clients in interactive exploration of these concepts.

Today BSSA uses formal experiential training methodology as the basis for skills transfer. This entails incorporating flexible training room activities, simulation exercises and actual experiences in real life situations. Participants engage in group and individual activities based on the course content and their expectations. Trainers observe participants during all phases of the learning process to evaluate their progress and respond to their training needs individually.

Continuing support

Training aftercare is necessary to achieve effective skills transfer. BSSA’s approach utilises group consulting maximally. This is coupled with the action planning initiated during training. The final stage of the experiential training methodology requires learners to formulate implementation plans for important learning points. Graduates can discuss progress and, if any, difficulties with implementation of individual plans. It is these plans that provide an opportunity for effective training aftercare.

The importance of quality

BSSA’s emphasis is on assurance of quality. The three major issues that receive particular attention are:

• accreditation of trainers and skills transfer methodology;
• appropriateness and quality of lesson material; and
• recruitment of appropriate learners.