INTRODUCTION

Amendment to the Skills Development Act in 2008 introduced a new and more purposeful Occupational Learning System. This new approach to skills development and training focuses on job specific learning to meet the needs of our organisations and workplaces.  It is in keeping with the original principles of the NQF, but embodies the wisdom of all the lessons learned since the SAQA Act of 1995 as well as the Skills Development Act of 1998.

The job-focussed approach is in line with our government’s war against unemployment and poverty. Through this system work related learning will be more responsive and flexible to the needs of the labour market. The newly allowed sub-frameworks within the NQF have also been given more latitude over their respective spheres of responsibility; this provides a new space within the NQF for the development of industry relevant qualifications. These qualifications are distinct from academic focused qualifications and the broad vocational focused qualifications, such as those conferred  by universities and FET colleges, respectively. Development of Occupational Qualifications is demand-driven and will result in fit-for-purpose qualifications registered on the NQF.

The Skills Development Amendment Bill also introduced the Quality Council for Trades & Occupations (QCTO), responsible for co-ordinating learning towards occupational competence within our national learning system.  The QCTO will ensure that learning programmes can be developed to address scarce and critical needs. The emergence of the QCTO facilitated a common language for the identification of occupations in the Organising Framework for Occupations(OFO). This framework provides a vehicle towards clearly defined post profiles and related personal development plans, it defines occupations with regard to specific jobs within the workplace and provides a point of departure for the development of Occupational qualifications. The Quality Council for Trades & Occupations  aims to be fully functional by April 2010.

In response to the changing skills development landscape, the SSETA established a directorate responsible for managing the transition within SSETA from the current structure to the QCTO driven structure. This directorate, SSETA Industry Council for Trades & Occupations (SSICTO), is responsible for the strategic positioning of the SSETA by ensuring that all required structures for supporting the new framework are established, the groundwork completed, models of implementation identified and piloted to prove the efficiency and effectiveness of the system. Through this directorate, the SSETA aims to develop a sustainable labour market for our growing economy by establishing structures and systems that will provide the following outputs:

  • Occupations (post profiles) related to Services Industries and the  associated Competence Profiles reflected on the OFO
  • Occupation Directed Curricula and Qualifications developed and registered
  • Industry defined and documented Occupation/Career and Learning Pathways
  • Industry defined Professional Designations and the associated CPD Programmes
  • Established and self sustaining Professional Body structures for monitoring Professional Designations and CPD Programmes
  • Identification, development and registration of Professional Designations
  • Research and Audit reports on the demand vs supply  of occupations
  • Strategic Plans and Programmes for addressing findings from Research and Audit Reports
  • Formalized structures for the global recognition of qualifications and designations for the Services Sector.
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