Business Skills for South Africa

Recent training workshops and courses presented by BSSA include:

Lonmin-IFC Local Supplier Development Programme

Lonmin Platinum is a primary producer of platinum group metals, and is the world’s third largest platinum producer. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) entered into a three-year partnership with Lonmin (2007-2010) to promote sustainable economic development in the area surrounding its mining operations in the North-West Province. The initiative originally entailed five programmes, one of which was the Local Supplier Development Programme.

Given the high levels of unemployment, low levels of education and poor living conditions, the Greater Lonmin Community (GLC) is characterised by limited business opportunities for small businesses. It was envisaged that supplying services to the mine could be a viable opportunity for small businesses, but a lack of business skills was seen as a major stumbling block to achieving this objective.

ECI Africa Consulting (Pty) Ltd was appointed as service provider to train and build the capacity of SMMEs in the GLC. BSSA was subcontracted by ECI Africa to provide training in business skills.

During the period April 2009 to May 2010, BSSA offered business skills training at three successively more advanced levels, comprising 26 modules across the three levels. A total of 147 participants attended at least one training session, and 20 participants successfully completed all the modules across all three levels.

In the evaluation report of the whole programme, commissioned by the IFC, it was concluded that the participation levels in the training programme implied a greater than anticipated need, and that the training had been well received by the participants.

See a success story resulting from this training intervention here.

Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The Middelburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry and BSSA have a strong and mutually beneficial relationship. In 2009, BSSA was contracted by the Chamber to train SMME owner-managers. The training was funded by BHP Billiton, and was the first phase of a longer term programme.

Stakeholder discussions at the Chamber referred to some of the reasons why small businesses fail during the first year of establishment. One common cause is the failure of the entrepreneur to conduct a thorough market study, and to link the results to his or her financial objectives. Most SMMEs also do not know what their breakeven point is and do not know whether they are able to meet their commitments from month to month. It was agreed that these entrepreneurs should go back to the drawing board to identify their target market, do a thorough customer needs analysis and then link their research to their financial forecasts.

This first phase of the programme ran from August to October 2009 and 100 SMMEs attended the training. The second phase commenced in October 2010 and was completed by April 2011.

See a success story resulting from this training intervention here.

Faranani Project

In August 2006, PwC launched a programme called the Faranani Rural Women Training Initiative. This was seen as the company’s contribution towards developing entrepreneurship amongst women. The programme aimed to nurture women with drive and desire to become business owners by providing them with the necessary know-how to get started.

BSSA was contracted to train 100 women in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng, with the pilot project starting in Limpopo in November 2006. Business plan training was offered.

In order to promote the empowerment of all women, PwC had invited various organisations to send suitable candidates to be trained, including People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) and Kwanda, a community project initiated by the Soul City Institute, the Department of Social Development and SABC1.

In 2010, BSSA was again contracted to offer business skills training to rural women in the ongoing Faranani project. From March to June, a further 100 women were trained in the same four provinces, this time in practical marketing, pricing and costing, and effective financial management. This was followed by a structured aftercare intervention over three months.

During the official launch of the 2010 training sessions in Johannesburg, some of the businesses received media attention which assisted them in attracting more customers.

Training for the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller (GEP)

The Gauteng Enterprise Propellor (GEP) has been a long-standing client of BSSA, and a number of training programmes were conducted for the various regional offices of GEP up until the end of 2009. In May 2010, training resumed and the SMME clients of especially the GEP offices in Tshwane, Metsweding, Ekurhuleni and Sedibeng attended courses. Training was also requested by the GEP Johannesburg and Springs offices.

Most of the requests have been for training in modules which deal with financial aspects of business management, e.g. basic bookkeeping, practical pricing and costing, and effective financial management.

Wholesale and Retail Seta

BSSA was awarded a tender by the Wholesale and Retail Seta to offer short skills courses to SMMEs registered with this seta (wholesale or retail businesses). From October 2009, BSSA trained 100 learners in Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga respectively.

The terms of reference for this project specified that training offered had to address the skills shortages as identified by SMME owner-managers. This information was sourced by the seta during focus group meetings preceding the updating of its sector skills plan. BSSA offered training on essential financial management for traders to these groups.

Other Short Courses

• Plantech requested BSSA to conduct a training intervention in Atteridgeville on practical pricing and costing. The training was delivered to learners over two days in August 2009, and again in August 2010.

• In September 2009, BSSA was contracted by the Institute of Business Advisers (IBA) to offer training to business advisers over two days on aspects of financial analysis.

• In January 2010, two one-day workshops were conducted for the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. This programme dealt with financial skills for Seda business advisers.