/ 16 March 2023

A game-changer for Occupational Qualifications

Qcto
Vijayen Naidoo, CEO of QCTO

The gazetting of the Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework (OQSF) Policy of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) on 29 October 2021 represented a huge step forward for occupational training in South Africa. Until this revised OQSF was gazetted, all Occupational Qualifications had been limited to being classified as Occupational Certificates. This article touches on some of the ways that the revised OQSF changes the game for Occupational Qualifications in South Africa.

The Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework (OQSF) is the repository for all Occupational/ Vocational and Trade qualifications — the qualifications that are designed in and for the workplace. The custodian of this sub-framework is the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) — and the gazetting of the new OQSF allows vocationally trained graduates greater freedom in terms of their choices for further studies, as well as direct access to the workplace, if they do not choose to study further. A common refrain in the education fraternity is that “qualifications are not jobs” — and while this is correct — Occupational Qualifications are designed to link directly with the workplace with the explicit intent that “qualifications lead to jobs”.

Where the NQF is intended to be a “single integrated framework” of qualifications, the OQSF has been something of an outlier in the system in terms of differentiated terminology. Where a qualification at Level 4 of the NQF is normally a National Certificate, until 29 October 2021 a qualification at that level could only be termed an Occupational Certificate (with appropriate qualifiers). Similarly, a qualification at Level 6 of the NQF is a Diploma or Advanced Certificate — but previously qualifications on the OQSF at this level would again be termed Occupational Certificates.

This situation in which the OQSF is “out of step” with the terminology of the wider NQF has finally been remedied with the gazetting of the revised OQSF policy — and now the OQSF broadly mirrors the terminology of the other sub-frameworks at each level of the NQF. In many ways, the revised OQSF represents a game-changer for the integration of the NQF.

The change is far more than cosmetic, however, as with these changes in terminology come a raft of improvements and optimisations to the occupational training system.

Not least among these is an immediate improvement to the levels of parity of esteem, as it no longer takes a specialist in the NQF to determine the comparability of an Occupational Certificate to another qualification. It is now possible for the casual observer to easily equate a Diploma appearing on the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF) with an Occupational Diploma on the OQSF. Now that the terms across the NQF “match”, it is no longer possible to see the OQSF as an outlier in that respect. Again, the OQSF has changed the game in terms of esteem and understanding for occupational training.

The ability to equate qualifications across the NQF based on terminology also opens the door for the QCTO to revisit existing qualifications to ensure that they meet the requirements of the new standardised terminology. Where a qualification name is moving from Occupational Certificate to Occupational Diploma, for instance, the QCTO is updating the requirements and content of such qualifications to ensure they meet the standard of a Diploma as broadly understood across the education system. 

This rapidly begins to attack the challenge of articulation — the linking up of qualifications to allow learners pathways up the NQF and into lifelong learning. If a learner wishes to enrol for  a qualification for which the entry requirement is a diploma, they should no longer need to provide substantial evidence that an Occupational Certificate at Level 6 of the NQF has equivalence to a Diploma. Now it is to be registered as an Occupational Diploma — and the question of whether a Diploma is a Diploma is unlikely to arise with any frequency. Indeed, with the gazetting of the revised OQSF, the game has changed for articulation of Occupational Qualifications and the wider NQF.

The revised OQSF also allows for the recognition of Skills Programmes by the QCTO, a class of qualification that resembles “short courses” or a form of “micro-credentialing”. Where Skills Programmes have existed in the system for some time, until now they have been largely unsystematic and introduced by specific Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to meet immediate skills’ needs. 

While they have always carried valuable skills and training, these sorts of programmes have not attracted recognition and were not designed systematically. With the formal incorporation of Skills Programmes into the OQSF, it allows for this type of micro-qualification to be systematically designed, rapidly developed and provided to learners and the labour market, and for these programmes to carry recognition that allows a holder of a Skills Programme to receive recognition towards a full Qualification if they choose to. The ability for the QCTO to provide recognised, quality-assured micro-credentials to the nation is just another game changer provided by the revised OQSF.

Although the OQSF has now changed the game for the better, the QCTO is determined to keep running so that the nation can score.