21, April 2026

Suprise Fakude

4 minute read

Johannesburg, South Africa, 02 March 2026 , iFundi has officially unveiled its new AI-powered Workplace Skills Planning (WSP) App, a digital solution designed to help Skills Development Facilitators (SDFs), HR teams, and Learning & Development (L&D) leaders streamline workplace skills planning, reduce administrative workload, and strengthen strategic workforce development.

The announcement was made during iFundi’s Community of Experts online event, which brought together skills planning professionals from across sectors to explore the shift from manual, spreadsheet-based WSP processes toward a more automated, future-focused approach.

As South African organisations prepare for WSP and Annual Training Report (ATR) submission deadlines, the session highlighted a growing need for better tools that support both compliance requirements and long-term organisational competitiveness.

Workplace Skills Planning: A Growing Pressure Point for Organisations

For many organisations, workplace skills planning remains one of the most time-consuming annual processes, often requiring extensive data collection from departments, consolidation of multiple spreadsheet versions, and repeated follow-ups to secure input from managers and employees.

According to iFundi, these challenges are not simply administrative. They directly affect how effectively organisations can plan skills development, align learning initiatives to business strategy, and achieve measurable return on investment (ROI) from training spend.

The Community of Experts session reinforced the view that WSPs should not be treated as a once-a-year compliance task. Instead, they should be used as a strategic tool to build capability, improve productivity, and prepare organisations for major changes such as automation, digital disruption, and AI-driven workplace transformation.

Keynote Highlights: “Learning and Development Is a Strategic Imperative”

The session opened with a keynote presentation by transformation and skills development leader Anusha, who shared insights from more than two decades in learning, skills development, and organisational transformation.

Anusha highlighted that many SDFs and L&D teams are forced into highly administrative roles, leaving little time to focus on strategy, future skills planning, and meaningful engagement with leadership. “In the past, learning and development used to be a support function. Today, it is a strategic imperative,” she said. She explained that organisations that do not intentionally build capability risk falling behind, particularly in a challenging economic environment where businesses face margin pressure, cost-cutting, and rapid change.

She also noted that training budgets are often the first to be reduced, even while organisations still expect strong B-BBEE scorecard outcomes. This creates a high-pressure environment where SDFs are expected to achieve skills development targets with reduced resources.

Anusha encouraged participants to move beyond attendance-based reporting and instead focus on measuring training impact, productivity improvements, and business value.

Industry Engagement: Practical Approaches to ROI and Skills Gap Analysis

A discussion segment allowed participants to share real-world examples of how they approach training needs analysis and skills gap identification.

One attendee, Janine Basson Hermanus, described how she used employee surveys, leadership discussions, and targeted interviews to identify what development interventions were truly needed in her organisation. She noted that while coaching was initially considered, a deeper review showed that mentoring would deliver greater value, especially in an engineering environment.

Janine also shared how her organisation introduced structured AI training, beginning with executive buy-in and then cascading learning across teams. She emphasised the importance of tracking outcomes and implementation after programmes are completed, rather than only measuring attendance

Repositioning Learning: From Compliance to Capability Building

iFundi’s WSP onboarding manager, Veronica, expanded on the theme of transformation by addressing the organisational challenges that prevent learning from becoming strategic.

She noted that in many workplaces, training is still treated as an optional activity. As a result, organisations often face issues such as missed development grant opportunities, weak career path mapping, inadequate training needs analysis, and low manager involvement in development planning.

Veronica stressed that learning and development must be embedded into daily operations and aligned with performance management and business strategy. She also referenced the concept of the learning organisation, drawing on Peter Senge’s framework of systems thinking and continuous improvement.

“The issue is not that organisations don’t train. The issue is that training is not embedded into strategy, performance management, and career progression,” she said.

Introducing the iFundi WSP App

In the closing presentation, Joel Perry, Academic Director at iFundi, demonstrated how the new WSP App is designed to reduce the pressure of workplace skills planning through automation and smart workflows.

Joel outlined the major operational challenges faced by SDFs, including slow data gathering, low response rates, version control issues, spreadsheet errors, and limited visibility across departments.

The iFundi WSP App addresses these challenges by enabling organisations to:

• • Digitise training needs analysis and employee skills inputs

  • Collect employee training requests through a structured survey workflow

  • Route submissions automatically to managers for review and approval

  • Track progress through a dashboard showing submissions, budgets, and departmental engagement

  • Upload employee data, organograms, and training catalogues once, then reuse them across planning cycles

  • Generate WSP outputs aligned to SETA templates (including sector-specific requirements)

Joel explained that the app supports a structured process where employees submit training needs, managers confirm priorities, and SDFs receive consolidated data in a format ready for planning and reporting.

By reducing manual work and improving visibility, the solution allows SDFs to focus more on strategic planning, budget optimisation, and aligning training with future business needs.

Limited Free Trial Opportunity

 The first 20 organisations to register interest will be eligible for guided trial access during the current skills planning period.