Frequently Asked Questions

Department of Human Resource Development Planning (HRDP) - Student Planning and Welfare Services

Workplace learning means structured skills training and development strategies that are provided at the workplace. These may include but not limited to; apprenticeship, learnership, traineeship and internship.

  • Relevant skills are developed and aligned to the world of work and workplace mandate
  • Reimbursable training costs incurred from the training intervention through the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF)
  • A motivated workforce
  • To support and promote the acquisition of relevant skills at workplaces
  • To align skills and competencies to the Skills Training Plan as informed by the National and Sector Human Resource Development Plans
  • Promote and encourage Research and Innovation initiatives geared towards achieving the National Human Resource Development Strategy
  • Work skills training plans describe the organizations training and skills development strategy that will help it to meet its overall objectives and targets.
  • Useful strategy for achieving professional growth.
  • Support and promote acquisition of relevant skills at workplaces.
  • Coordinate and direct the implementation of skills development interventions.
  • Supports training opportunities in the workplace for employees to acquire the essential skills to do their jobs competently, safely and productively.
  • Acts as a continuous improvement tool for feedback and assessment activities.

Preapproval requests are made for training of non-citizen employees and for any training that is to be outsourced from neighbouring countries. The requirements are as follows:

  • Letter of justification for approval of the proposed training.
  • Provide evidence of Training Providers accreditation status
  • List of learners undertaking proposed training and copies of their certified identity documents (Omang for citizens and passports for non-citizens)
  • Cost breakdown of the training costs

They are to be submitted to the Workplace Learning Unit in HRDC at the beginning of the financial year. They cover training activities over the planned period.

These are reports on the training interventions undertaken by a Workplace over one planned period or one financial year. These reports are submitted at the end of the financial year to the Workplace Learning Unit, HRDC.

Training institutions at different levels of education, ranging from pre-primary to tertiary and life-long learning. The services are usually offered by Career Guidance Educators and Councillors or Student Affairs Practitioners.

This unit is one of the three units in the Department of Human Resource Development Planning (HRDP) Supply. There is detailed model of student affairs and welfare service and a wide range of co-curricular services which universities have established to complement the learning experience in the classroom.

Co-curricular services are activities that aim to develop the student’s physical, moral, mental, social, and emotional wellbeing and strive to develop the learner’s entire personality to enable them to excel in their academic endeavours.

Student Support services (SSS) facilitates and enable transition from one educational level to another.  Such services include; psychological support, Living and Learning Communities (LCC), disability support, diversity, specialized learning support, financial support, admissions, cultural activities, student leadership and organisation as well as parent education. Its functions include to:

  • Promote an enabling learning environment.
  • Promote services that enables students ‘well-being.
  • Promote Financial education
  • Promote equitable and non-sexist/ racial learning and living environment.
  • Provides career guidance and counselling
  • Assist students during admission and advices on courses, elective and optional selections
  • Lead in internationalisation and student exchange programmes
  • Promote Culture and language transfer through various events and individual and group interactions.
  • Enhance student leadership, advisory and supporting student led organisations.
  • Promotes and assist in job placements within campus and identify opportunities for employment.

Student Support services (SSS) facilitates and enable transition from one educational level to another.  Such services include; psychological support, Living and Learning Communities (LCC), disability support, diversity, specialised learning support, financial support, admissions, cultural activities, student leadership and organisation as well as parent education. Its functions include to:

  • Promote an enabling learning environment.
  • Promote services that enables students ‘well-being.
  • Promote Financial education
  • Promote equitable and non-sexist/ racial learning and living environment.
  • Provides career guidance and counselling
  • Assist students during admission and advices on courses, elective and optional selections
  • Lead in internationalisation and student exchange programmes
  • Promote Culture and language transfer through various events and individual and group interactions
  • Enhance student leadership, advisory and supporting student led organisations.
  • Promotes and assist in job placements within campus and identify opportunities for employment.

Provides public health education to individuals and groups on campus and lead HIV & AIDS awareness campaignsIt predominantly focuses on the promotion of healthy lifestyles, prevention of diseases and social ills, through behaviour change interventions, rehabilitation, counselling and referral to appropriate service providers if need be. The overall aim is to enhance the quality of life.

  • Promote the health and well-being of students.
  • Provide health education and prevention programmes.
  • Offer effective primary health care services on campus.
  • Offer curative and rehabilitative services.
  • Provide counselling guidance services.

 

Human Resource Development Planning (HRDP) – Demand

These plans seek to address the misalignment between the supply of graduates and the demand for skills from the labour market. Lack of requisite skills to meet job requirements of employers has been identified as one of the major reasons attributed to graduate unemployment.

The approach is a divergence from the Manpower Planning Approach which is used to be undertaken by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning until 1987. Sector Driven National Human Resource Development Planning is a collaborative integrated systems approach to human resource development planning that links together national policies and strategies, education and skills development, the labour market and the economy and which cuts across separate jurisdictions to ensure a pan-Botswana National Human Resource Development Plan. Human resource development planning approach will ensure Botswana’s successful transitions from a resource driven to an efficiency driven economy and to lay the foundation for a subsequent transition to a knowledge based, innovation economy.

Sectoral Committees represent key and strategic sectors of the economy and are partnerships that work together to form a strategic collaborative alliance. Their purpose is to provide a single nexus which focuses on determining the human resource development needs and skills and designing collaborative actions that serve the long term needs of the sector. Sectoral Committees ensure that there is a direct linkage between the supply of graduates and the skills demand of the economy.

 

  • Oversee the production and periodic review of sector specific HRD plans that will ensure a direct linkage between the education and skills that are being developed and the needs of the economy;
  • Provide a forum for constant dialogue and consensus building among stakeholders in the sector on all matters relating to HRD;
  • Provide advice to HRDC on the emerging economic trends and relevant education and training and skills needs of the sectors;
  • Provide advice on appropriate measures to deal with any mismatch between demand and supply of human resource in the sectors;
  • Identify planned major projects that require human resource impact assessment studies and make recommendations for their formulations and execution;
  • Provide a sounding board for the sector to advice the HRDC to discus, review and validate national and sector HRD plans;
  • Ensure a linkage with the strategies of Government by ensuring interaction with Economic Diversification Drive (EDD), hubs and others;
  • Ensure linkages with other sectors to deal with cross sector occupations and skills that fall outside the scope of a specific sector and which needs to be incorporated in the National Human Resource Plan;
  • Embed a commitment from employers within the sector to invest in the training of their employees and in the development of education and training; to provide internships and to advice on the optimal use of the Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF) and the Human Resource Development Fund.

The composition of the HRD Sector committee ensures that the sector is comprehensively represented with a mix of individuals that in composite demonstrate a combination of qualifications, experience and relevant positions of leadership and authority.

The membership is drawn is drawn from the broad constituencies;

  • Business and Employers;
  • Government (Central and Local Government Representatives);
  • Employees and Labour Unions;
  • Advisory, Steering, Support and Regulatory Agencies;
  • Education and Educational Institutions;
  • Skills Training and Development Specialists and Institutions;
  • Professional, Employer and Employee Associations; and
  • Civil Society

HRDC has so far established 12 HRD Sector Committees namely;

  1. Mining, Minerals, Energy and Water Resources MMWER)
  2. Tourism
  3. Creative Industries
  4. Agriculture
  5. Health
  6. Information Communication and Technology (ICT)
  7. Finance and Business Services
  8. Transport & Logistics
  9. Research, Innovation Science & Technology (RIST)
  10. Manufacturing
  11. Public Sector and
  12. Education and Training

Department of Statistics, Research, Development and Innovation

  • HRDC Grant Project initiated in 2013 and ideally to be conducted on bi-annual basis, open to Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs) and other stakeholders.  The 2nd cohort of projects received grants in the 2016/17 financial year.
  • Sponsorship to individuals in based on the value-addition of their proposal
  • Currently there is no budget to pursue the HRDC Research & Innovation Grant Project this financial year.
  • HRDC has noted the misconception that research in Botswana was conducted for publication in journals
  • HRDC partnered with Development Research Uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa (DRUSSA) – University of Botswana (UB) to organise a conference on the uptake and utilisation of research outputs
  • HRDC envisages to promote applied research through its current Grant Project scheme.
  • HRDC has undertaken capacity building initiatives to capacitate TEI’s and stakeholders in the technology transfer value chain in order to guide them on how to protect their research and derive monetary benefits from their commercialisation.
  • Consistent appraisal of TEIs on the HRDC research activities
  • TEIs also share their institutional research progress with HRDC
  • Policies in place for data collection from TEIs with emphasis on quality statistics
  • TEIs Research Lead Persons forum created.
  • Conducted capacity building workshops for Tertiary Education Institutions
  • Grant Project initiated in 2013
  • Promotion of industry-linked research through 2016/17 Grant Project
  • Participated at both local and international conferences and seminars
  • Advance the goals of the Research & Innovation Strategy
  • Low Research & Innovation Budget and Expenditure
  • Human resource capacity for research is low.
  • Quality of research output is low and no formal QA system that exists.
  • Innovation and IP among the lowest in Botswana.
  • Knowledge transfer opportunities low due to weak university-industry links.

 

Department of Funding

The Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) is a levy based Fund established for the purpose of promoting workplace learning.  It  is operated through a Levy Grant System, where companies pay a levy that is a percentage of their annual turnover into the Fund and reimbursed costs that they incurred for training of their employees.

The Levy Grant Scheme focuses only on company in-service training by creating incentives for a company to invest more in the skills development of its workforce. The eligible training can be either in house on the job training or outsourced training, with more focus on soft skills and technical and vocational education. Workplace training may lead to an award in the form of either a certificate or transcript showing competencies acquired or in some instances particularly on product related training there is no certificate.

A training levy is a levy based on an employer’s turnover. An employer is any person registered or liable to be registered under the Value Added Tax (VAT) Act.

Any company that accumulates an annual turnover of over the current VAT threshold must pay the training levy.

Turnover Payable Levy Payable
Less than P1,000,000.00 No Levy
P1,000,000.00 to 2 billion 0.2%
Excess of 2 billion 0.05%
Oil industry Oil industry 0.05% on regulated petroleum products

N.B: Quick shop sales will attract 0.2% rate for oil industry companies.

  • Every P1.00 paid as levy up to a maximum of P1,000.00 shall generate a grant of P7.50;
  • Every P1.00 paid as levy in excess of P1,000.00 but below P5,000.00 shall generate a grant of P3.75;
  • Every P1.00 paid as levy in excess of P5,000.00 shall generate a grant of P2.00;

Department of Human Resource Development Planning (HRDP) - Supply Institutional Planning

Institutional Planning (IP) is a strategy that is employed to ensure that Tertiary Education sub-sector is systematically positioned to respond to the Human Resource Development needs of Botswana’s economy. As such, IP ensures that the output of the Tertiary Education institutions matches the priorities of the economy needs, not just learner’s preferences.

  • To formulate a sector level institutional planning framework and guidelines that links individual institutional plans to the NHRD Plan and ensure a seamless integration between strategic and business planning.
  • To coordinate development of an integrated and coherent tertiary education system that balances the need for delivery, differentiation, accessibility and quality.
  • To support Tertiary Education Institutions (TEIs), monitor and evaluate efficiency of their programmes.
  • To assist TEIs to ensure that their output is as relevant as possible to industry specific training, through internationally recognized qualifications and related skills.
  • Achievement of linkage between the demand and supply of national human resource
  • Ensures that Tertiary Education Institutions assess their relevance from time to time
  • Communicates to the stakeholders (students inclusive) the direction that a Tertiary Education Institution is taking in addressing the HRD needs of the economy/community
  • Facilitates attraction of partnerships with an institution – industry and international partners inclusive
  • Gives a guide on the resources needs for an institution to achieve the targeted human resource development
  • It informs development partners on the priorities, set at institutional level, to address the human resource development needs of the economy.
  • Directs monitoring and evaluating the level of achievement of an institution against targets set for contributing to the human resource development. That is, it sets the basis for assessment of an institution