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For newcomers, navigating one's way into the accredited education and training arena can be a bit intimidating and confusing. The information here is to help you on the way and point you in the right direction with links to relevant websites provided at the end. On this page you will find information on:
What is SAQA?The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) was established in 1995, answerable to both the ministers of Labour and Education and is responsible for the development of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) by formulating and publishing policies and criteria for the registration of bodies responsible for establishing education and training standards for qualifications and for the accreditation of bodies responsible for monitoring and auditing achievements in terms of such standards and qualifications (Burger, 2004). SAQA is also responsible for implementing the NQF by ensuring the registration, accreditation and assignment of functions to appropriate bodies as well as the registration of national standards and qualifications on the NQF. SAQA has accredited 31 Education and Training Quality Assurance (ETQA) bodies, including the 25 Sector Education and Training Authorities (Seta's), the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and a number of industry specific professional bodies. The 25 Seta's are based on specific sectors of society/the economy with examples including: • Tourism and Hospitality SETA (THETA) • Primary Agriculture SETA (PAETA) • Local Government SETA (LGSETA) • Chemical Industries SETA (CHIETA) • Education, training and development practices SETA (ETDP SETA) What is the NQF?The NQF is a framework for all education and training that takes place in South Africa from pre-school level right through to the highest level of tertiary education. Education is divided into a number of levels, bands and phases. One of the intentions of the NQF is to integrate education and training and to address skills shortages in order to strengthen economic growth. The NQF also aims to facilitate access to education and training and to redress past unfair discrimination in education towards a more egalitarian education system (Allais, 2003). The Seta's obtain their funding from the National Skills Levy, a tax established through the National Skills Development Act (1998) whereby all employers pay a tax of 1% of their employees salaries. 80% of this tax is allocated to the relevant Seta (each employer is allocated to a Seta based on its main economic activity) while the remaining 20% goes into the National Skills Fund and is used for targeted training initiatives in priority skills as determined by the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS). The Seta's use up to 10% of the funding they receive to cover their administration/operating costs which means that employers are able to recover up to 70% of the skills levy tax by offering accredited training to their employees. This 70% of the Skills Levy funding, scattered throughout the Seta's is there to drive skills development in the workplace in order to address the huge skills shortage we have in South Africa. It is an incentive for employers to reclaim their National Skills Levy (NSL) contributions by offering accredited skills training to their employees. How are qualifications on the NQF generated?Most NQF qualifications are made up of Unit Standards, this is the smallest component that a qualification can be broken down into and can vary in size from 2 credits (i.e. 20 notional hours of learning) through to a maximum of about 20 credits. A Unit Standard is made up of Specific Outcomes that describe what a learner must be able to do once competent, and Assessment Criteria that describe the complexity or depth to which this should be achieved. There are three types of Unit Standard: • Fundamental Unit Standards deal with skills that are fundamental to learning in that particular qualification and often include things like literacy and numeracy; • Core Unit Standards deal with skills relevant or specific to the particular qualification or field of expertise and practice and; • Elective Unit Standards deal with specialized skills or context specific skills and knowledge. The qualification usually specifies the percentage of unit standards from each category that must be adhered to. Unit Standards and Qualifications are developed by Standards Generating Bodies (SGB's) which are supported by but are independent of the Seta's. The members of an SGB are elected by the constituent contributors to that sector. For example, all employers that fall under THETA are divided into categories and each has a SGB: • Hospitality - The hospitality SGB develops standards and qualifications for the hospitality industry e.g. catering, functions, hotel keeping, etc. • Tourism - The tourism SGB develops unit standards and qualifications for the tourism industry e.g. travel agents, tour companies, Tourism Guiding, etc. • Conservation - the conservation SGB develops unit standards for the conservation sector e.g. Marine Conservation, Terrestrial Conservation, Ecotourism, Community Based Conservation, Environmental Management, hunting, etc. There is legislation that governs who should be represented on the SGB's and in what ratios, for example, for the conservation SGB there should be representatives of Provincial Conservation agencies, SA National Parks, Private Game Reserve stakeholder groups, the NGO sector, Tertiary Institutions that offer conservation related qualifications, etc. The SGB's meet regularly in workshops to write unit standards and qualifications for their particular sector. The SGB is guided by a qualifications "map" that is informed by liaison with stakeholders of that sector, research and policy documents such as the Sector Skills Plans (SSP's). Each Seta has a SSP that is constantly reviewed and reshaped through feedback from its constituent employer organisations, usually every four years. Once a unit standard and/or a full qualification is written, it is submitted to SAQA where various experts review it and then it is placed on the SAQA website for public comment. If changes are required through the public review, these are made and eventually the unit standard and or qualification is registered on the NQF. Once registered, it is public property and can be offered by any accredited training provider. An accredited training provider will have to develop a learning programme and relevant learning support materials for the qualification and these are submitted to the relevant ETQA (Education and Training Quality Assurer - usually located in a Seta) How does accredited education and training take place?The Seta's are responsible for accrediting education and training providers to offer the qualifications and unit standards that are registered on the NQF. A provider must satisfy three areas or categories related to training provision before it can become accredited:
Fig 1. Accredited training providers must have good education and training quality management systems, must have qualified and experienced education and training facilitators and good Learning Support Materials (LSM's) aligned to the qualification unit standards and must have accredited assessors and moderators. There are also many options for partnerships for training delivery. For example, a small training enterprise may not want to become a full provider but may just want to offer training delivery or just LSM development or just assessment and moderation. Such a part-provider can team up with a full provider for delivery. An accredited provider can only be accredited through one Seta and this will be the Seta that quality assures the qualifications that the provider is wishing to provide/deliver. If the provider wants to offer qualifications that fall under the scope of a different Seta, it still applies through the Seta that it is accredited under and that Seta will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Seta responsible for the other qualifications so that all learning programmes and learning support materials are sent to the relevant seta for quality assurance purposes. Any employer organisation can send its employees on accredited training, no matter how many employees it has. The employer can claim back up to 70% of its SDL contributions to pay for such accredited training. The employer would contact the relevant Seta or visit the website of that Seta to find a list of accredited training providers that have been accredited to offer that particular qualification. Before claiming back SDL funding for training, the employer must have submitted a Workplace Skills Plan that identifies priority areas for skill development in that particular organisation and specifies policies and procedures for how employees will be selected or access training, who will coordinate and manage skills development in the organisation (this person is known as a Skills Development Facilitator), etc. Many large employer organisations are finding it worthwhile to become accredited providers themselves so that they can provide their own accredited training to their own staff and access the SDL funding for this. Others become partly accredited and enter into partnerships with fully accredited institutions for delivery of training to their staff. Most employer organisations, particularly smaller ones, outsource all accredited training to external accredited providers and claim from their SDL contributions to pay for this professional development of their employees. Many employers don't bother at all and so do not claim back any of their SDL contributions. This has led to a situation where many Seta's have some excess funding that has not been claimed and after a certain period, they are able to use this excess funding to fund specific training initiatives such as learnerships. What are Skills Programmes and Learnerships?If a short course is offered based on a small number of unit standards that do not make up a full qualification, this is called a skills programme . The accredited provider offering a skills programme must first have the skills programme registered by the relevant Seta. It is possible for a learner to collect the correct combination of skills programmes so that they eventually add up to a full qualification. Employers are able to claim SDL funding no matter whether they are offering skills programmes or full qualifications for their employees. A learnership is a particular way of offering a full qualification. A learnership is registered with the department of Labour by the relevant Seta and is usually only based on qualifications that address priority skills areas for that particular sector (these are identified in that Seta's SSP). Once a qualification is registered as a learnership, an employer organisation can request for employees (already employed) or volunteers/part time staff (employed only for the duration of the learnership) to be placed on the learnership. The employer can specify an accredited provider that they would like to provide the learnership or in certain cases a Seta will select a provider and specify the number of learners for a learnership. A learnership always involves: • A learner • An employer • An accredited provider • The relevant Seta. Funding for learnerships is in excess of the usual claim of up to 70% of the employer organisation's SDL contributions as additional funding is made both for the training provider and to pay a basic stipend or living allowance for the learners. Useful Websites
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