There is a difference between an intern and an apprentice in the world of black economic empowerment.
Over the many years we’ve traditionally viewed INTERNS as professionals who are doing their articles or experiential training leading to a professional qualification. An APPRENTICE was always viewed someone who aimed to qualify in a trade. Although in the medical world some surgeons in training are apprenticed to professionals in order to qualify.
As can seen the terminology is a little confusing. The BEE codes seem to have created their own definitions. The edited graphic below shows the requirements for both interns and apprenticeships.
Category D Learnerships or Apprenticeships are in fact not learnerships at all. They are closer to articles that an accountant or lawyer may undertake. The programme is formal and results in a qualification. These programmes are generally the reason why the large law firms and accounting practices score so well on their respective BEE scorecards.
Internships are very different. They are much broader than both learnerships (Category C programmes) and apprenticeships. The BEE codes tend to contradict themselves. In one place they talk about internships as being an opportunity to integrate career related experience into an undergraduate education by participating in planned, supervised work, and then they include ABET programmes as examples of an internship programme (for those who don’t know staff members on ABET programmes are in fact interns by definition).
This leaves a lot of leeway in trying to understand what an intern could be. We’ve locked into a paragraph in the amended skills code that says Skills Programmes must Support ‘Professional, Vocational, Technical and Academic Learning programmes, achieved by means ….. work-integrated learning…..and internships, that meet the critical needs for economic growth and development.
Then we needed to anchor our thought process against the strict intentions of the BEE Act, Strategy and Codes.
Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act
Section 3
(1) Any person applying this Act must interpret its provisions so as—
(a) to give effect to its objectives and purposes; and
(b) to comply with the Constitution.
BEE Codes of Good Practice
The BEE Codes themselves support the Act.
Paragraph 2 code series 000 (gazette number 42496) lists the key principles as being (inter alia)
- The fundamental principle for measuring B-BBEE compliance is that substance takes precedence over legal form.
- In interpreting the provisions of the Codes any reasonable interpretation consistent with the objectives of the Act and the B-BBEE Strategy must take precedence
This is why the INTRATERNSHIP programme has become so popular in the economy. Our numerous clients see the ultimate benefit to their business. They get to teach people to teach other and to learn from each other. This formalised process is an ongoing programme that never stops.
In fact one of largest clients has launched a Corporate University that will see all their staff going through this training programme throughout their employment. We’ll discuss this in more depth in the next email.
Learning happens whether you formalise it or not. Formalisation leads to standards that benefit the staff and the organisation. Just because your training budget is small doesn’t mean that you can’t make use of our INTRATERNSHIP programme.
AND THE BEE POINTS. Every intern’s salary counts as skills spend. Please have the BEE points on us.