COMPANY PROFILE

INTRODUCTION

Skillsmatters Pty Ltd is a subsidiary of Prodigy Business Services Pty Ltd. Prodigy is an accredited Recognition of Prior Learning Centre working across the Services, insurance, Manufacturing and Engineering, Broadcasting, and Public sectors. Further information on services offered by Prodigy can be found on www.prodigyskills.com.

Skillsmatters focuses on skills research, benchmarking, scorecards and a publication called skillsmatters. The publication, skillsmatters, showcases skills interventions, profiles key decision-makers within the skills arena and provides incisive skills data. The publication is distributed within South Africa as well as to Australia, Canada, UK and USA, thus promoting foreign direct investment.

THE RATIONALE FOR SKILLSMATTERS

In 2006, Business Trust conducted a survey regarding incentives for foreign direct investment (FDI). Although the project particularly looked at Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), certain general trends emerged. One key finding is that the second most common reason why foreign investors are deterred from investing in South Africa is due to (the perception) that South Africa lacks the necessary skilled workforce.

This is perception based. There is, therefore, a need for South Africa to “market” the various skills development interventions and programmes being implemented by government and business to international investors, with the aim of encouraging greater FDI.

OBJECTIVES OF SKILLSMATTERS

The primary objective is to profile South Africa as a country that is indeed responding to its skills challenges, with the aim of encouraging greater international investment. The following are the objectives of skillsmatters:
Objective One: To showcase to the world what South African government (public sector) and corporates (private sector) are implementing in terms of skills development. This would include:
Learnerships and specific industry related skills programmes
Internationally recognized skills programmes
Technical skills programmes and training
Programmes within key sectors such as:
• Business Process outsourcing including call centres, finance, banking, insurance
• Tourism including events, travel, hospitality
• Manufacturing including materials handling, logistics, warehousing

Workplace and industry programmes focusing on youth and graduates.
Junior management and supervisory skills development programmes.
Management and executive development interventions.
Provincial programmes related local economic development, municipal governance.

Objective Two: To create a platform for information sharing between South African entities. This includes:
Collective information sharing and dialogue between all South African stakeholders
Showcasing what corporate SA is doing in terms of skills development.
Many public sector departments have become best practicing skills development organizations, yet this is not widely known. Thus, skillsmatters would showcase what government departments are doing in terms of employee development.

Objective Three: To communicate substantive content from Sector Skills Plans, etc and primary research on annual skills development trends. This will ensure that skillsmatters is content based, with new information in each publication. This includes:
Average training spend per employee by industry sector
Comparison between what South African organizations invest in training with international organizations
An analysis on the focus of training i.e. by occupational category, by racial group, etc
Perceptions on best practicing organizations
Specialists views points from stakeholders from all over the world in terms of skills development practices, etc

Objective Four: To profile key decision-makers that are tasked with strategizing, implementing and driving skills interventions within corporate, public departments, Sector Education and Training Authorities, Statutory Bodies and Agencies.