Mentornet Profile

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COMPANY DETAILS

Registered name of the enterprise: Mentornet (Pty) Ltd.
Trading name: Mentornet.
Registration number: 2000/008414/07.
Income tax reference number: 9520015646.
VAT registration number: 4930192895.
Sub-sector in accordance with the Standard Industrial Classification: 920 Education.
Size in class: Small.
Total full-time equivalent paid employees: 5.
Total annual turnover: R2,000,000.00 – R3,000,000.00.
Total gross asset value: R3,000,000.00.
BEE Status: Level Four Contributor – 100% Procurement Recognition.

BUSINESS DESCRIPTION

Mentornet is a private learning provider, specializing in Education and Training Development courses. The company is fully accredited with the ETDP SETA to offer seven national qualifications and approximately 134 unit standard-based courses.

Mentornet offers courses in all provinces of South Africa and can also do the same in any other country. During the last four years we offered courses/delivered services in Alberton, Arcadia, Bela-Bela, Brits, Bloemfontein, Boordfontein, Cape Town, Centurion, Chuenespark, De Aar, Doornpoort, East London, Ellisras, Elukwatini, Fairland, Farrarmere, Grahamstown, Heidelberg, Hendrina, Houghton, Johannesburg, Kempton Park, Klipdrift, Kriel, Kroonstad, Lenyenye, Letaba, Lohatla, Mafikeng, Makhado, Mangaung, Mareetsane, Menlyn, Midrand, Mondeor, Mossina, Mthatha, Musgrave, Nelspruit, Oudtshoorn, Pietermaritzburg, Pietersburg, Pretoria, Polokwane, Potchefstroom, Queenstown, Randburg, Rosherville, Simonstown, Saldanha Bay, Stofelton (KZN), Secunda, Simmerpan, Tecoma, Trichardtsdal, Tzaneen, Virginia, Wellington, Witbank, etc.

Mentornet also offers quality assurance-related services in the field of occupationally-directed education training and development, such as:

Establishment of learning institutions, including capacity building, accreditation, structuring and the formulation of skills development policies and procedures.
Design and development of learning programmes aligned with unit standards or curriculums.
Evaluation of learning materials.
Verification of internal moderation.
Skills auditing.

ORGANOGRAM

MISSION STATEMENT

Mentornet provides full and part qualifications in ETD to individuals and organizations engaged in ETD in order to provide competent practitioners able to meet the growing needs of outcomes-based learning, skills development and human resources development in Southern Africa.

In addition, Mentornet provides information, best practice quality assurance, instructional design and development and skills development services to individuals and organizations engaged in ETD and HRD in order to protect and promote the learning and employment interests of the South African community.

VISION

Mentornet is the leading accredited provider of full and part ETD qualifications based on National Qualifications Framework (NQF) standards, to individual practitioners and organizations in Southern Africa.

Secondly, Mentornet is the leading provider of ETD and HRD information, quality assurance, instructional design and developement and skills development services in South Africa.

CLIENT BASE, GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES AND SIZE OF THE MARKET IN RELATION TO THE POTENTIAL MARKET SIZE OF THE BUSINESS

Mentornet currently serves approximately 50 regular clients and a number of individuals. Regular clients vary in size from small businesses, enrolling two learners at a time to large organizations enrolling up to 100 learners on learnerships.

UNIQUENESS OF MENTORNET AND PRINCIPLE PROBLEMS

Mentornet has the following:

Experienced and well-qualified facilitators. (Fifty-two such facilitators are registered with Mentornet, but only six are used regularly at the moment.)
Six qualified and registered assessors.
Four qualified moderators.
Approximately 134 unit standard-based courses, designed outcomes based.
Five instructional designers who have the skills and experience to design new courses outcomes-based and to re-aligned old ones, should they be replaced by new unit standards.
A proven Policy and Procedure, which is fully aligned with the SAQA and ETDQA quality assurance requirements in terms of compliance and performance.
A well-structured administrative system, which meets the quality assurance requirements of SAQA and the ETDP SETA.
A reputation as a company that maintains high quality standards in learning and assessment.
A management of change approach to the development of training materials – training materials are updated continuously to keep abreast with changes in the training environment.
Sound financial management, which enables the company to offer courses at most competitive course fees.

KEY SUCCESS OF THE BUSINESS

Mentornet achieves very good success because of the uniqueness of its learning programmes and because only the best quality training, including design, facilitation, learner-support, assessment, moderation and administration is accepted. No substandard work is allowed or accepted.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

Education, training and development. Mentornet has trained more than 7,000 learners in approximately 70 unit standards and five national qualifications over a period of ten years. Mentornet focuses on occupationally-directed education, training and development (OD ETD) and human resources development (HRD).
Learning programme design and development. Mentornet has designed and developed more than 200 unit standard-based learning programmes and 9 national qualifications for ourselves and our clients in the fields of OD ETD, social work, mining, HRD, management and entrepreneurship.
Quality assurance. Mentornet has done evaluations of learning materials, internal moderation, assessment, compliance quality assurance and performance quality assurance of training providers for a period of ten years.

MAJOR COMPETITORS

The competitors are also accredited with the ETDQA. Few of them have the capacity that Mentornet has and only four that we are aware of are accredited for the range of courses that Mentornet is accredited for. It is, however, doubtful if any provider has the knowledge, skills and capacity in instructional designers, facilitators, assessor and moderators that Mentornet has.

SUCCESSFUL MILESTONES ACHIEVED TO DATE

Mentornet could only start operating fully in 2000, because accreditation took three years to finalise! The company issued more than 4,000 certificates in two years and it looks like the output has stabilized at 200 learners per year, attending one to approximately twenty unit standard aligned learning programmes each.

Mentornet assisted fourteen BEE private providers to obtain accreditation since 2000.

Dr Nel has been invited and acted as a speaker at a seminar organized by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) in February 2011. The seminar took place at the Berlin University of Economics and Law in Berlin, Germany. Twenty-one speakers from countries including Germany, Italy, Hungary, Chili, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, England, Austria, etc. were invited. The topic of the seminar was "Integrating accreditation and quality assurance in VET and HE".

REFERENCES

Mentornet has more than 100 clients of whom approximately 53 can be regarded as regular clients. Details of references are provided for clients who ask for tenders or quotations.

DIRECTORS/MEMBERS OF THE BUSINESS

Currently Dr J.P. Nel is the sole owner of Mentornet (Pty) Ltd.

DIRECTORS/MEMBERS OF THE BUSINESS

Mentornet (Pty) Ltd, currently has only one owner and five full-time employees (of whom two are Black). As such the company is a micro organization and not a designated employer as defined in the Employment Equity Act, 1998. However, we have been voluntarily involved in the empowerment of previously disadvantaged people since our inception in 1998. In this respect we endeavor to comply with the Government requirements in terms of equity as required by the DoE, SAQA and the ETDP SETA and stipulated in the Labour Relations Act, 1995, Employment Equity Act, 1998, Basic Conditions of Employment Act, 1997 and the Skills Development Act, 1998.

Regardless of legal requirements, it is in the interest of all South African citizens, regardless of race, colour or gender, to promote the development of the society at large and the national economy. In this respect I, as the owner of Mentornet (Pty) Ltd, accept my moral responsibility. In fact, there is no doubt in my mind that the only way in which we can assure the future of our society and economy is through sound quality education, training and development. Well trained people will enjoy a substantially better quality of life than before.

It is not in the interest of anybody to deliver poor quality work or products. It is an injustice to expect anybody to fill a position for which he or she is not properly qualified. South Africa cannot exist in isolation. We are part of the international society, and, if we are to compete in this society we need to maintain standards that at least match the so-called first world countries. Our economy is not strong enough to absorb unprofessional or unethical behaviour, so that we need to prepare previously disadvantaged people properly before we expose them to the critical and distrusting world out there. We at Mentornet accept our responsibility to our fellow South Africans.

Mentornet is but one branch of The Mentoring Network, with the other two stakeholders being Mentorstrat and our BEE Partners. Each stakeholder owns his respective company or closed corporation and is a signatory to the agreement according to which Mentornet provides them with assistance in accreditation, administration and operations.

Equity ownership. Mentornet has already established ten Black-owned Private Learning Providers and is currently offering our services to any other emerging private learning provider who needs assistance or simply wishes to become part of The Mentoring Network. People and organizations who were or are members of The Mentoring Network include:

Vhutsila Skills Development Services. (Owner: Mr S. Netshivhera.)
SPS Consulting CC. (Owners: Mrs P. and Mr S. Sekete.)
Dabulamanzi and Njabulo Ndaba Consulting. (Represented by M.E. Tlatsi.)
Focus Consultancy CC. (Owner: Mr B.J. Nkuna.)
Mrs Lorraine Sophy Maselela, who use to be a facilitator for Mentornet.
Human Development Practioners of SA. (HDPSA.) (Owner: Mr K.A. Siyo.)
Amaqamu Project Management and Consulting. (APMC.) (Owner: Mr B.P. Lykhozi.)
Training Q Serv. (Owner: Mrs Gazelle Müller.)
Breakeven59, represented by Mr Tsidiso Tshabalala.
SPS Consulting renewed the agreement on 02 April 2009.
Rakolota Consultants, cc. (Owner Mr Lengane Rakolota.)
Mrs Mamabolo Makawara Florence.
Mrs Bafana Mbetse.
Wildfire. (Owner Mrs Makabolane Precious Makwala.)

Skills Development. Mentornet is empowering the BEE partners by assisting them in obtaining accreditation; training their staff members in the management of a learning institution, facilitation, assessment, moderation, etc; providing them with learning materials fully aligned with unit standards or curriculums; helping them prepare and submit tenders, etc. Mentornet is exempted from paying skills levies, due to the company being too small (paying annual remuneration of less than R500,000.00). However, we spend a substantial amount on training all our staff members. At one stage (2000 – 2002) we spent 18% of our annual turnover on the training of facilitators of whom the majority were Black. Skills development spend on our staff members as percentage of leviable amount is approximately 6% of our annual turnover.

Enterprise development. Mentornet helps our BEE partners who need assistance to obtain accreditation, provide them with training materials, assistance with facilitation, assessment, moderation and administration. Some of them are today fully independent and no longer need the assistance of Mentornet. Cumulative non-recovering contributions made as a percentage of cumulative EBITDA measured from the commencement/inception date of measurement. Average for the last three years: 8%.

Residual elements. As a private learning provider Mentornet empowers approximately 200 learners, of whom approximately 80% are Black, per year in new skills, which should strengthen their chances of gaining employment. We, unfortunately, do not have accurate figures on how many of them do find jobs after having been trained by us. In addition, Mentornet trained more than 50 Black facilitators, instructional designers, assessors and moderators during the last five years with the intention of using them ourselves. However, without exception all of them obtained better job offers once they were trained. A small company cannot compete with the large conglomerates for skilled workers, especially not Black workers. In some instances they obtained better job offers even before they completed their training! Furthermore, Mentornet works on a very low profit margin, since we accept our social responsibility to promote lifelong-learning and to provide access to as many previously disadvantaged learners as we can. I can provide evidence of Black students whom we allowed to attend training for free, because they had to pay for their training themselves. Our after tax profit for the last four years was between 2 and 15%!

The future. Mentornet will continue making a contribution to the social and economic upliftment of our community in the future. In this respect our objectives are as follows:

To continue assisting Black owned private learning institutions to obtain accreditation, train their staff, provide them with learning materials at cost, provide them with facilitators, assessors and moderators, assistance with administration and IT, certification, etc. The ultimate aim is for them to become independent within as short a period of time as possible.
To continue training potential Black facilitators, assessor, moderators and instructional designers for ourselves and our Black partners.
To continue offering only the best quality training possible to previously disadvantaged individuals at a most reasonable fee.
To continue developing Mentornet into one of the best learning providers in ETD in South Africa and to sell the company to a Black owner, who has the skills and knowledge to manage the company, at a reasonable price.