We work across every sector. These are the ones we know cold.
Your SETA is decided by your main business activity, not by preference. Each one has its own portal, its own grant windows and its own way of rejecting a claim.
SETA guide
Your SETA, and where submissions usually come apart
Registering with the wrong SETA is one of the quieter reasons grant claims fail, and it is common in businesses that do more than one thing: a manufacturer with a large distribution arm, a contractor with a plant hire division. It is the first thing we check.
| Sector | SETA | What we see go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Construction & civil engineering | CETA | Site-based staff, labour brokers and sub-contractors left out of the headcount, so the plan understates the workforce and the grant is calculated on the wrong base. |
| Manufacturing, metals & engineering | merSETA | Apprentice and artisan records that do not reconcile with the training matrix when the discretionary grant is audited. |
| Chemicals, polymers & plastics | CHIETA | Mandatory safety, SHEQ and handling training delivered every year but never recorded as skills spend, so it earns nothing on the grant or the scorecard. |
| Food & beverage manufacturing | FoodBev | Seasonal and fixed-term staff excluded from the plan, then queried at submission when payroll and headcount disagree. |
| Agriculture | AgriSETA | AET and literacy training run informally and well, with no evidence pack behind it. Real development that scores zero. |
| Textiles, furniture, print & packaging | FP&M | Businesses straddling two SETAs registered with the wrong one entirely, sometimes for years. |
| Transport & logistics | TETA | Licence, code and dangerous-goods renewals treated as an operating cost rather than as claimable training. |
| Wholesale & retail | W&RSETA | High turnover making the ATR headcount disagree with payroll, which reads as a data error rather than as normal churn. |
| Professional & business services | Services | Professional body CPD, already paid for and completed, never carried across into the WSP at all. |
| Mining & quarrying | MQA | Statutory competence training tracked in the safety system and nowhere near the skills plan. |
Where we have the deepest history
Construction, civil engineering and manufacturing. It is where most of our clients sit and where the skills problem is least theoretical. You either have a qualified artisan on the job or you do not.
These sectors also carry the awkward cases. Workforces that move between sites. Staff who are competent by twenty years of practice and hold no certificate for any of it. Roles that need statutory tickets renewed on a cycle. Apprentices sitting somewhere between employee and learner on the payroll.
None of that fits a template, which is exactly why templates keep failing in these industries.
Recognition of Prior Learning
The single most under-used tool in South African skills development, and the one that matters most in trades.
RPL takes someone who has done the job well for fifteen years without a qualification and assesses them against the standard they already meet. They come out the other side formally qualified.
You keep the person. They get the certificate. It counts toward your skills spend and your scorecard. And it usually costs a fraction of putting them through a full programme to learn what they already know.
Company size
Size matters more than sector
Under 50 on payroll
The levy is small and the admin rarely pays for itself unless B-BBEE status is driving a specific contract requirement. We will tell you honestly if that is where you sit.
50 to 150 on payroll
The sweet spot. Big enough that the grants and scorecard points are worth real money, small enough that nobody internally has the capacity to own the work properly.
150 and up
Multiple occupational levels, often multiple sites, sometimes more than one SETA. This is where a missed deadline stops being an irritation and starts being a number on the board pack.
Not sure which SETA you are registered with?
That is a normal question, and it is one we can answer from your SARS registration in about ten minutes. Ask for a call back and we will check it with you on the phone.