Answer grounded in published legislation
Your question
When an employee starts to work without any skills at a vimpany, and the company teaches the person (at full pay) rare skills, with the aim to further the employee at employers company, and the employee decides to drop the employer to work for a competitor company, is the original employer required to issue the employee a certificate for the skills taught?
The supplied sources do not impose a duty on the original employer to issue a certificate for skills it taught an employee, whether the employee leaves for a competitor or not. The Labour Act provision expressly says an employer may furnish a testimonial or certificate of good character after employment ends, which makes that type of certificate discretionary under the cited text. 3
If the employee successfully completed a trade test to the required standard, the National Trade Testing and Certification Centre, not the employer, must issue the trade-test certificate. The cited sources do not state that employer-funded, paid workplace training alone creates a right to a skills certificate. 2
Verified sources
Where this answer comes from
Civil Defence Act 39 of 1966
11. Duties of employers of persons undergoing training or rendering service
National Vocational Training Act 18 of 1994
(1) A certificate shall be issued by the National Trade Testing and Certification Centre to each person having successfully completed a trade test to the required standard. (2) The form and contents of the certificate referred to in subsection (1) shall be determined by the Chief Trade Testing Officer with the concurrence of the Board. [Although this Act is repealed in its entirety by the Vocational Education and Training Act 1 of 2008, section 49(13) of Act 1 of 2008 provides that the National Trade Testing and Certification Centre established under section 30 of this Act continues to exist and to perform its functions as if this Act had not been repealed, until a date determined by the Min...
Labour Act 11 of 2007
(d) the date of commencement and date of termination of employment; (e) the employee’s job description; (f) the remuneration at date of termination; and (g) if the employee requests, the reason for termination of employment. (6) Nothing in this section prevents an employer from furnishing an employee whose employment has been terminated with a testimonial or other certificate of good character. PART G DISPUTES CONCERNING THIS CHAPTER
Vocational Education and Training Act 1 of 2008
“vocational education and training” means education and training which provides learners with occupational or work related knowledge and skills; and
National Vocational Training Act 18 of 1994
*** BE IT ENACTED by the Parliament of the Republic of Namibia, as follows:- *** PART V EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING OF APPRENTICES
Civil Defence Act 39 of 1966
(1) If any person is called up under this Act to undergo training or to render service as contemplated in section 9(1), his employer shall grant him the leave which is necessary to undergo that training or to render that service. (2) Any employer who - (a) does not comply with the provisions of subsection (1); (b) dismisses any employee from his service or reduces his salary or wage or changes his position to his disadvantage or penalizes him in any other way on account of his having been called up for the said training or service or his being about to be so called up; (c) in any manner attempts to persuade an employee to evade the said training or service or not to undergo or to render it,...