The perceived value of the return on investment of accounting learnerships for employers

Learnerships were introduced by the South African government as a mechanism toaddress the shortage of skilled people in the workplace. The aim of this researchwas to determine the perceived value of the return on investment (ROI) of theChartered Accountant (CA) learnership specifically from the employers point ofview. Despite there being 934 learnerships registered in South Africa, there hasbeen minimal ROI that relates directly to learnerships. The research was conducted in three phases. During the first phase, a focusgroup was convened to identify the components of the financial and non-financialbenefits and costs of the CA learnership. These components were included in asurvey questionnaire that was completed by 127 respondents during the secondphase. In-depth interviews were conducted with eight employers in the third phaseto determine the monetary value of the costs incurred in the implementation of theCA learnership. The key findings of the research include the identification of the specificcomponents of the ROI of the CA learnerships, i.e. the financial and non-financialbenefits and costs. From a holistic viewpoint, employers perceive the value of theROI of the CA learnership. Copyright © 2009 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Kater, N 2009, The perceived value of the return on investment of accounting learnerships for employers, MBA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-04082010-120841/ > G10/313/ag