86 / 280
84
BLUE LABEL INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2014
AIRTIME
As with previous years, the Group has aligned its
approach to transformation with those of the
B-BBEE codes. Consequently, the Group’s focus
has been predominantly around the training and
development of staff, socio-economic development
and enterprise development.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
The Blue Label Academy, the Group’s internal
e-learning training academy, which aims at providing
training and development to all staff regardless of
where they are located in South Africa, underwent a
facelift and a restructure. The front-end was upgraded
and given a new look and feel.
Previously, staff were limited to a maximum of two out
of a total of 450 possible courses, in terms of the
licence arrangements purchased by the Group. This
year, the Group purchased one access code per
employee, but limited the number of choices to the
most popular 100 courses. Staff are still required to
complete their selection of courses on-line, at their
own pace and in their own time. Based on their
selection, staff are able to register for business skills
and technical courses, which have to be duly approved
by their line manager and included in their
performance assessment.
In addition to the e-learning initiative, relevant staff
have the opportunity of registering and completing
formal classroom-based training. The total spend
within the Group on training for the financial year
was R5.4 million (2013: R3.9 million). The increase
in spend can again be attributed to a focus on
developing technological competencies.
LEARNERSHIPS
The Group continues its partnership with Bytes People
Solutions in providing various learnership programmes,
as detailed below. The Group has also partnered with
Full Circle and Spectrium to provide learnerships
within the financial services sector of our business.
Velociti, with the assistance of People Solutions, was
awarded 212 learnerships from the KZN branch of the
Services SETA in August 2013. These learnerships
include 140 Contact Centre support NQF Level 2,
50 Contact Centre Operations NQF Level 4, 10 Project
Management Level 4 and 12 Business Administration
NQF Level 4 learners.
Excluding Velociti, the total number of learners
currently employed across the Group is 28 (2013: 31).
The number of learners has decreased due to the
Group’s decision to focus on procuring fewer learners
of a higher calibre. Consequently, the spend on
learnerships has increased.
Each learner is mentored and assisted through their
learnership to ensure it is completed successfully for
the learner to obtain the relevant qualification. Of the
28 learners, three are disabled (2013: eight learners),
the balance having been formally employed. Currently
60% (2013: 64%) of the learners are female,
following concerted efforts to attract more females to
the learnership programme.
SOCIAL
PRACTICES