FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS RMDP 2015/16 Question Answer 1. What is RMDP? Retail Management Development Programme 2. Who can nominate? Wholesale and Retail companies 3. Where will this programme take place All provinces pending the number of delegates in a province 4. Where is the venue for training Training venues will be in city centres of all participating provinces 5. Which institution will deliver the programme The University of Pretoria 6. When will the programme start? The RMDP is envisaged to start on 2 March 2015 7. When will the selection be conducted During February 2015 all dates will be communicated to the excepted candidates who were nominated by their companies 8. What is the selection criterion? Please check the nomination guidelines on the website 9. Where will the selection be conducted? In the various provinces, potential delegates will be invited to identified venues for selection 10. How long will the selection process take? The process starts from 8H00 to 16H00 11. What does the selection process entail? Interviews and a conceptual ability assessment. Ability to cope with workload while learning will also be assessed 12. What are the modules to be covered? Refer to the guidelines on the website 13. Do the delegates need to complete all modules Yes. It is compulsory to complete all modules in order to be certificated 14. Will there be an exam? There will be written assignments after every module, the final assessment will be an integrated assessment 15. How long is the retail tour? 1 day 16. Which companies are the delegates visiting for the local retail tour? This information is not yet confirmed, successful delegates will be informed in advance 17. What is the cost of the programme? The RMDP is sponsored by the W&RSETA 1 18. Will the W&RSETA sponsor the delegates travel to the venue? No. It is required that the nominating companies 19. Will there be graduations? Yes 20. Will the W&RSETA fund travel to the graduation venue? Yes 21. Where will the graduation be held? The graduation will either be provincial or in a central venue, information on this will be communicated to the successful delegates and participating companies 22. How long is this programme? A maximum of 12 months including selection, training and certification processes 23. How long is a training session 1 session is five days long; from Monday to Friday sponsor the travel and accommodation possibly closer to the training venues 24. How many sessions will the delegates attend? The sessions are divided into groups of 4 blocks which are staggered. There will be a 4 week break between each block to cater for demanding periods in retail such as Easter, festive season, etc. 25. How many lessons will a block comprised of? 1 or 2 (5 day sessions). The final block structure will be confirmed after the selection process based on the provincial spread of participating companies 26. How many times will delegates attend in a month? 1 week per month during training blocks unless a training block is comprised of more than 1 session; however a block will be limited to a maximum of 2 sessions with a break between the sessions 27. What happens if delegates miss a class/session? Depending on the number of groups per session, delegates will be allowed an opportunity to attend another group to make up for the missed class 28. Will there be training during festive season? No, the training will be conducted during retail peak periods such as Easter holidays. 29. Is there provision for Distance Learning Unfortunately not, due to the nature of the Programme which requires active team work and group assignments which will form part of assessment criteria. 30. Will there be an opportunity for reassessments should a delegate not meet the pass mark? Delegate’s re-assessments will be dealt with on an individual basis. However; delegates are encouraged to adhere to the Programme timelines on submission of assignments for assessments purposes 31. Is the Thesis compulsory? Yes, it is. 32. What will be the topics for the Thesis? The facilitators will provide delegates with research topics for the thesis 33. Will the Thesis be an individual or groups? It will be a group Thesis which must be presented during the last block of the training. Group effort is 2 required to ensure a good Thesis as it will form part of the integrated assessment 34. Will participating in the RMDP guarantee delegates entry into the ILDP? No. ILDP has set criteria for eligibility and successful RMDP delegates must be nominated by their company and be assessed as per the ILDP criteria. Important to note: There may be slight changes to the schedules due to the fact that Programme is implemented nationally. This means that the final numbers of the delegates and companies per province may influence the implementation structure. Should this happen, participating companies and delegates will be informed before the programme is rolled out. Communication will only be limited to the delegate and company representatives as indicated in the nomination form. 3