The challenge

South Africa has one of the most unequal school systems in the world. The gap in test scores between the top 20% and the rest is wider than in almost every other country.

The opportunity

Increasing levels of education benefit individuals, families, communities and the country. It’s an important avenue for achieving long-term poverty reduction and change. By increasing skills, we are also increasing the pool of skills available to us as employers.

The stakeholders

Individuals and communities close to our areas of operation, Sappi people, Sappi.

The roadmap

We equip our people and the communities in which we operate with the life and career skills, knowledge and confidence that allow them to build on their own capabilities and further their development.

Our actions

• In FY2022, we spent an average of ZAR11,163 per employee on training. Our employees benefitted from an average of 63 hours of training.
• We continued to work with our partners TREE (Training and Resources in Early Education) in KwaZulu-Natal and Penreach in Mpumalanga to provide training for early childhood development (ECD) practitioners and support for ECD centres in each region.
• As set out in the table below, our skills centres at Ngodwana and Saiccor Mills offer training to both Sappi employees and unemployed youth. We have received full accreditation as a skills development provider on the instrumentation trade at the Saiccor Skills Centre. In addition, we successfully completed trade tests for 13 artisans this year in our skills centres.
• We boosted the development of technical skills with the introduction of additional technical programmes including woodyard superintendent, paper machine operator, maintenance planner, business process engineer and human resources business partner. The programmes include online training, classrooms, mentoring and practical assignments.
• Khulisa Ulwazi, our training centres for small growers, are targeted at all forestry value chain participants, including land reform beneficiaries and Sappi Khulisa growers.
• Our Foresters in Training programme:
  As in previous years Sappi took on six Foresters in Training (FiTs) who recently completed their Diploma in Forestry from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Saasveld Campus. All six FiTs did very well in their one-year programme and have been absorbed into permanent positions in our forestry division.

  In 2023, we will be further sponsoring six diploma students in their final year.

Courses offered at the skills centres and people trained in FY2022

COURSES	2022 ACHIEVENMENTS
Basic handyman programme	122
New venture creation	12
Accredited programmes	94
Pre-apprentice programmes	10
ESD graduation	12
Sappi apprentice programme	63
Engineering technical training	112