Post-School Education and Training Systems

How converging and or diverging is the South African Post-School Education and Training (PSET) Systems in relations to determination of three Sub-Frameworks making up our National Qualifications Framework (NQF)?

Background:

The Minister of Education, Science and Innovation issued Gazette on the determination of three Sub-Frameworks back in December 2020. This Gazette is an update of other Determinations which were Gazette issued back in 2012, and 2013.  

Determination of all three Sub-Frameworks is the functional scope, responsibility and accountability of South African Qualification Authority (SAQA) and three Quality Councils per the NQF Act of 2008 and Skills Development Act of 1998. This includes advising the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation on any other exceptions.

Policy Convergence:

The current Determination provides a legislative description of both the Sub-Frameworks and Quality Councils. It further differentiates Quality Councils by qualifications type they are mandated over. Meaning Quality Councils’ mandates are clearer even quality assurance responsibilities are getting simpler in the operationalising PSET Systems.

The current determination outlines Sub-Frameworks as a system and Articulation too as a system. In essence this determination in regulatory form gives specific of each system.  So the latter is an evident that PSET is made of clusters of systems hence called PSET Systems.

Lastly, this determination of Sub-Frameworks is an implementation progress and partly deliverable against PSET Systems’ objective of Expanding access, improving quality and increasing diversity across PSET institutions of learning. PSET Systems intend to achieve its objectives by 2030.

Policy Limitations:

Some SAQA registered part and full Qualifications’ Level Descriptors need review i.e. update even effect corrections to ensure alignment to SAQA’s issued Level Descriptors. This speaks of mandated qualifications across all these three Quality Councils even in Professional Bodies’ scope.

Secondly, this determination of Sub-Frameworks does not provide at least a regulatory guide on dealing with duplications and overlaps of existing qualifications. This problem has been raised at Green paper phase into the current PSET Systems policy of 2013.

Lastly, these three Quality Councils including the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) have issued policies on articulations, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), and Credit Accumulation Transfer (CAT).  So these assessments policies, guidelines and criteria need alignment. So alignment of the latter helps to ease NQF implementation and realization of NQF objectives. It also simplifies implementation of PSET’s objective of Expanding access, improving quality and increasing diversity across PSET institutions of learning.

Skills Development Providers:

What does the above outlined convergence and limitations mean to a Skills Development Provider (SDP) operating in the PSET Environment?

• Firstly, the PSET Systems is not a once off establishment. Rather an ongoing development effort. An ongoing development which is slow in relations to labour market demand for skilled workforce and challenge of increasing rate of unemployment especially skilled and or trained workforce.
• Secondly, convergence of all mentioned assessment policies, guidelines and criteria ease speed for prospective learners to gain skills, training and development in multiple competencies with NQF credit bearing. This widens their career paths. Lastly, SDP are provided with platform to provide creative ways to fast tracking skills, training and development that supports labour market demands and increasing current challenges of unemployment.

In Conclusion:

Of course comparison of more than two policies or legislations pieces is vital to outline both convergence and divergence.

The above write-up is a comparison between a policy to a piece of regulation. This regulation piece is more of policy implementation and deliverable. Hence the write-up outlined limitations instead of divergence. However it may be possible to identify points of divergence.  Good news is these limitations are current work in progress of SAQA and the three Quality Councils.

So let us wait for the engagement outcomes of SAQA with all three Quality Councils on outlined limitations.