National Qualifications Framework Act, 2008 (Act No. 67 of 2008)

Term

Description

Accreditation

Means an official approval awarded to a Provider by a Quality Council to offer qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework.

Accredited Provider

Means a legally established institution (public or private) that has been recognised, usually for a particular period of time, by a Quality Council (QC) or its appointed agent, as having the capacity or provisional capacity to offer a qualification or part-qualification registered on the NQF at the required standard.

Application

Means the functional combination of the practical component and the workplace component through skills learning or simulated work experience learning.

Apprenticeship

In line with the SDA, Act 97 of 1998 an apprenticeship means a learnership in respect of a listed trade, and includes a trade-test in respect of the trade.

In the context of this policy an apprenticeship means a learning programme in respect of an officially listed trade or occupational qualification, which includes an EISA in respect of that trade or occupation.

Articulation

Means the process of forming systemic, specific and individual possibilities of connection between occupational qualifications and/or part-qualifications to allow for the horizontal, vertical, lateral and diagonal movement of learners through the formal education and training system and its linkages with the world of work.

Assessment

Means the process used to identify, gather and interpret information against the required competencies in a qualification or part qualifications in order to make a judgement about a learner’s achievement.

Certificate

Means a document indicating formal recognition by the QCTO of an occupational qualification or part-qualification awarded to a successful learner.

Cognate

Term used to mean similar or related.

Comparability

Means the degree of similarity between two or more qualifications /part qualifications in terms of purpose, level, credits, and learning outcomes in order to determine the extent of credit accumulation and transfer within or between institutions. The matching of curricular properties should be considered when comparability is determined.

Credit

Means a measure of the volume of learning required for a qualification or part-qualification, quantified as the number of notional study hours required for achieving the learning outcomes specified for the qualification or part-qualification. As a guide one (1) credit is equated to ten (10) notional hours of learning. This may be different for the work place component of the qualification.

Credit Accumulation

Means the totaling of credits required to complete a qualification or part-qualification.

Credit Accumulation and Transfer (CAT)

Means the practice of accumulation credits from one or more cognate learning programmes in an institution and transferring those credits to be recognized towards a qualification/part qualification in the same or different institution.

Credit Accumulation and Transfer (CAT) system

Means an arrangement whereby the diverse features of both credit accumulation and credit transfer are combined to facilitate lifelong learning and access to the workplace.

Credit matrix

Means a system in which learning outcomes can be arranged and compared in levels of increasing complexity based on agreed groupings of credits, such as in modules/subjects or part qualifications.

Credit transfer

Means the vertical, horizontal or diagonal relocation of credits towards a qualification or part-qualification registered on the same or different level, registered on the same or different Sub-Framework.

Entry requirement

Means the minimum academic knowledge and practical competencies, and or work experience that a learner must have completed to be able to be admitted for a qualification and or part qualification. This may include recognition of other forms of prior learning such as non-formal and informal learning and work experience deemed as comparable for entry. In the South African context, entry requirements also take into account the broad socio-political issues of access.

Exit Level Outcomes

Means the knowledge, skills and attitudes that a learner should have obtained or mastered on completion of a qualification or part qualification and against which the leaner is assessed for competence.

External Integrated Summative Assessment (EISA)

The EISA is a final assessment which integrates the knowledge, practical and/or workplace experience to assess the competence of a learner against the stated exit level outcomes of an occupational qualification, part-qualification or skills programme.

Final Integrated Supervised Assessment (FISA)

Means a supervised final assessment for which assessment processes, tools, and results are recorded towards the achievement of a historically registered qualification or skills programme.

General and Further Education and Training Qualifications Sub-Framework (GENFETQSF)

Means the Sub-Framework of the NQF for General and Further Education and Training that is developed and managed by Umalusi.

Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF)

Means the sub-framework of the NQF for Higher Education that is developed and managed by the CHE.

Internship

Means the position of a learner or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification.

Learnership

Means a learning programme registered with the DHET which consists of a structured learning component of a specified nature and duration, and which leads to a qualification registered on the NQF related to an occupation. A learnership is based on an agreement entered into between the learner, the institution and the employer.

Learning Programme

Means a structured and purposeful set of learning experiences that lead to a qualification, part-qualification or skills programme

The Skills Development Act, Act 97 of 1998 and the Sector Education and Training Workplace Based Learning Programme Agreement Regulations (No 1241 of November 2018) as published in the Government Gazette No 42037, Vol 641 of 16 November 2018 defined as a learning programme as follows:

A Learning Programme includes a learnership, an apprenticeship, a skills programme and any other prescribed learning programme which includes a structured workplace experience component.

Level Descriptor

Means a statement describing learning achievements at a particular level of the NQF that provides a broad indication of the types of learning outcomes and assessment criteria that are appropriate to a qualification or part-qualification at that level.

Lifelong learning

Means the learning that takes place in all contexts in life from a life-wide, life-deep and lifelong perspective - formally, non-formally and informally. It includes learning behaviours and obtaining knowledge as well as understanding and covers attitudes, values, and competences for personal growth, social and economic wellbeing, democratic citizenship, cultural identity, and employability.

Minister

Means Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation.

Module

Means an assessed/assessable unit of learning with a defined outcome and associated credits.

National Learners’ Records Database (NLRD)

Means the electronic management information system of the NQF under the authority of SAQA, which contains records of qualifications, part-qualifications, learner achievements, recognized professional bodies, professional designations and associated information such as registrations and accreditations.

National Qualifications Framework (NQF)

Means the comprehensive system, approved by the Minister of Higher Education Science and Innovation for the classification, registration, publication and articulation of quality-assured national qualifications and part-qualifications.

The South African NQF is a single integrated system comprising three coordinated qualification sub-frameworks for General and Further Education and Training, Higher Education, and Trades and Occupations respectively.

Notional hours of learning

Means the agreed estimate of the learning time that it would take an average learner to meet the defined learning outcomes; it includes consideration of contact time, research, completion of assignments, time spent in structured learning in the workplace, individual learning and assessment. Ten (10) notional hours equate to one (1) credit.

National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Act

Means the National Qualifications Framework Act (No. 67 of 2008).

Occupational qualification

The SDA defines an occupational qualification as “a qualification associated with a trade, occupation or profession resulting from work-based learning and consisting of knowledge unit standards, practical unit standards and work experience unit standards.”

In the context of this policy an Occupational Qualification means a qualification associated with a trade, occupation or profession developed and quality assured under the auspices of the QCTO and consisting of knowledge/theory and application (practical skills/work experience/simulated work experience) components and an External Integrated Summative Assessment.

Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework (OQSF)

Means the sub-framework of qualifications developed and managed by the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO).

Occupational Standards

Means statements of work performance that reflect the ability to successfully execute the functions of an occupation.

Outcomes

Means contextually demonstrated end products of specified learning process, which include knowledge, skills and values. Outcomes could be generic or specific.

Parity of esteem

Means placing equal value and status to qualifications that are on the same NQF Level, but have different routes of study. Parity of esteem is achieved when both qualifications progress equally to employment or to further studies.

Part-qualification

Means an assessed unit of learning with a defined outcome that is or will be, registered as part of a qualification on the NQF.

Post-School Education and Training

Means Education and Training opportunities for people who left school as well as adults who may never have been to school but require educational opportunities.

Qualification

Means a registered national qualification consisting of a planned combination of learning outcomes which has a defined purpose or purposes, intended to provide qualifying learners with applied competence and a basis for further learning and which has been assessed in terms of exit level outcomes, registered on the National Qualifications Framework and certified and awarded by a recognized body.

Quality Council (QC)

Means one of the three councils tasked with developing and managing one of the Sub-Frameworks of the NQF in order to ensure that agreed quality standards are met. These Quality Councils are Umalusi for the GENFETQSF; the CHE for the HEQSF; and the QCTO for the OQSF.

Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO)

Means the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations established in terms of the Skills Development Act No. 97 of 1998.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Means the principles and processes through which the prior knowledge and skills of a person are made visible, mediated and assessed for the purposes of alternative access and admission, recognition and certification, or further learning and development.

Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA)

Means a sector education and training authority established in terms of section 9(1) of the Skills Development Act to perform functions set out in section 10 of this Act.

Simulated work experience

Means learning achieved through exposure and interactions gained through a simulated workplace environment that a learner has to complete towards the achievement of a qualification or part-qualification registered on the OQSF.

Skills Development Act

Means the Skills Development Act (No. 97 of 1998).

Skills Development Provider

Means a provider of occupational learning

Skills Programme

Chapter 5 of the SDA, Act 97 of 1998 defines a skills programme as a skills programme that is occupationally based and when completed will constitute/contribute a credit towards a qualification registered on the NQF.

South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA)

Means the Qualifications Authority contemplated in Chapter 4 of the NQF Act.

Standard

Means the set criteria, norms and model that are prescribed.

Sub-Framework of the NQF

Means one of three coordinated qualifications Sub-Frameworks which make up the South African NQF as a single integrated system, namely: the General and Further Education and Training Qualifications Sub-Framework (GENFETQSF), the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF), and the Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework (OQSF).

Trade

Means an occupation contemplated in section 26B of the Skills Development Act for which an artisan qualification is required.

Work Experience

Means the exposure and interactions gained through being in the work place.

Workplace-based Learning

Means the learning achieved through exposure and interactions required to practice, gained while integrating the knowledge, skills and attitudes required in the workplace.