The EastCape Training Centre has been selected for a national initiative to pilot the “Investors in People” standard. "The Investors in People project is a quality management system focusing on people - who are obviously an organisation's biggest asset," says ETC director Dieter Küsel. "If we successfully implement both the Investors in People project as well as the ISO system - which fully complement each other - ETC will most probably be the only training provider in the world with both systems in place," says Küsel. ETC is in the process of receiving the international ISO 9001 quality certification. The training centre has developed a good reputation both nationally and internationally over the past twenty-five years. Küsel says that the Investors in People project will build on this status. "By having been selected as a pilot site, ETC will be benchmarked against international standards. It considerably enhances our vision to be the leading provider of skills training in South Africa." Forty companies and institutions in South Africa have been chosen to pilot this international standard, which aims to establish a high level of training and development of staff to achieve business goals. According to Küsel only two out of the forty pilot sites are training providers. Among those selected from more than 400 applications are Eskom, Nedcor, South African Breweries, Old Mutual and BMW. "A whole range of criteria had to be met in order to qualify," he says. The Investors in People standard was developed in the United Kingdom as a framework to improve business performance and competitiveness. One of the targets of the National Skills Authority is to have more than 500 organisations committed to the project by 2005, says Küsel.