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General Questions

FAQ

Who is SAQA and what is their responsibility?

SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) is the statutory body responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of South Africa’s National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

NQF oversight — maintains and develops the NQF, organising all South African qualifications into a single structure across general/further education, higher education, and trades and occupations (NQF Levels 1–10).
Qualifications registration — registers qualifications and part-qualifications on the NQF, working with the Quality Councils (Umalusi, the CHE, and the QCTO).
Evaluation of foreign qualifications — evaluates foreign qualifications against South African standards, issuing a Certificate of Evaluation often needed for employment, study, or professional registration.
Verification of qualifications — confirms a claimed qualification genuinely exists on the NQF database, a common compliance check for employers.
NLRD — maintains the National Learners’ Records Database, fed by SETAs, training providers, and the QCTO.
Policy and standards — sets policy for credit accumulation and transfer, recognition of prior learning (RPL), and articulation between qualifications.

What is a learnership?

A learnership is a structured, work-based learning programme registered with a SETA and accredited by the QCTO, combining classroom-based theory with practical workplace experience, and leading to a full NQF-registered qualification.

Legal basis — legislated under the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998, regulated through SETAs and registered on the NQF via the QCTO.
Structured agreement — requires a formal tripartite agreement between the employer, the learner, and an accredited training provider.
Duration — typically 12 months, ranging from 6–24 months depending on the qualification.
Theory + practice — learners split time between structured learning and supervised workplace application.
Full qualification — unlike a skills programme, a learnership leads to a full NQF-registered qualification with a SAQA ID.
Funding — a key vehicle for SETA discretionary grant funding and heavily weighted on the B-BBEE Skills Development scorecard.
Learners — can be existing employees upskilling, or unemployed learners brought in specifically for the learnership (often linked to Employment Tax Incentive eligibility if under 30 and within salary bands).

What's the difference between a learnership, a skills programme, and an internship?

These three get conflated a lot in compliance documents — here’s how they differ:

	Learnership	Skills Programme	Internship
Legal basis	Skills Development Act, registered tripartite agreement	Skills Development Act, no formal tripartite agreement required	Not specifically defined in the SDA — usually internal policy
Leads to	Full NQF-registered qualification (SAQA ID)	A skill set or part-qualification	Often no formal NQF credit unless linked to a qualification
Duration	Typically 12 months (6–24 months)	Days to a few months	3 months to 2 years, employer-defined
Agreement	Tripartite: employer, learner, provider	No tripartite agreement	Internal contract; not SETA-registered
Theory/practice mix	Structured learning + supervised workplace application	Mostly theory-based, limited practical	Mostly practical/on-the-job
B-BBEE weighting	Highest weighting	Lower-weighted than learnerships	Counted if documented, but no scorecard leverage
WSP/ATR reporting	Detailed — enrolment, progress, completions	Reported, less granular	Reported as workplace experience
SETA discretionary grant	Primary vehicle	Eligible, generally smaller amounts	Less commonly the basis
ETI relevance	Strong, especially unemployed youth under 30	Possible if linked to qualifying contract	Possible, same age/salary criteria
Typical use case	Credit-bearing career pathway	Upskilling on a specific competency	Graduate placement, work-readiness

What's the difference between traditional training, online training, and e-learning?

Traditional training — face-to-face, in a classroom or workshop, with a live facilitator; fixed time and place; best for hands-on skills and compliance training that needs discussion.
Online training — delivered over the internet, often live (video call/webinar) with a facilitator; real-time but remote, so no travel needed; typical for webinars and virtual-classroom learnerships.
E-learning — self-paced digital content (videos, modules, quizzes), usually with no live facilitator; learner chooses when to engage; typical for LMS-based modules and compliance e-learning like OHS induction.

For SETA/WSP-ATR reporting, the key distinction examiners look for is whether there’s a live facilitator (traditional/online) versus self-paced digital content (e-learning), since this affects how the intervention is classified and recorded.

Can you explain the NQF levels?

SAQA oversees the entire NQF, which runs from Level 1 to Level 10 in increasing complexity:

Level 1 — Grade 9 / ABET Level 4
Level 2 — Grade 10 / NCV Level 2
Level 3 — Grade 11 / NCV Level 3
Level 4 — Grade 12 / NCV Level 4
Level 5 — Higher certificate, occupational certificates
Level 6 — Diploma, advanced certificate
Level 7 — Bachelor’s degree, advanced diploma
Level 8 — Honours, postgraduate diploma
Level 9 — Master’s degree
Level 10 — Doctoral degree

Levels 1–4 (general and further education) sit under the Department of Basic Education and Umalusi. Levels 4–6 (higher certificates and diplomas) involve TVET colleges and SETAs, with the QCTO overseeing occupational certificates. Levels 6–10 (degree-level qualifications) fall under the CHE and universities. Umalusi and the QCTO are Quality Councils that report into SAQA’s NQF oversight, while the CHE works with SAQA on higher-education quality assurance.

What are the responsibilities of SETAs and the QCTO?

SETAs handle funding and sector facilitation:

Collect the Skills Development Levy (SDL) and distribute mandatory and discretionary grants
Approve WSP/ATR submissions and review employer reporting
Facilitate learnerships — register and fund placements
Run sector skills planning, identifying scarce and critical skills

The QCTO handles qualification design and quality assurance:

Registers qualifications and designs occupational qualifications on the NQF
Accredits training and assessment centres
Oversees the EISA (External Integrated Summative Assessment) — the final standardised assessment
Issues certification once a qualification is confirmed achieved

In short: SETAs decide who gets funded and which skills are needed. QCTO decides what the qualification is and whether the assessment meets standard.

What's the difference between legacy qualifications and QCTO occupational qualifications / skills programmes?

Legacy qualifications — built from SAQA unit standards, registered in the pre-QCTO era, and being phased out or re-aligned. Outcome: full qualification. Status: closing/expiring. Assessment: unit standards. Still valid if not yet expired.
QCTO occupational qualification — the current system; a full, NQF-registered qualification made up of a knowledge component, a practical skills component, a workplace experience component, and a final EISA exit assessment, delivered via a learnership agreement. Status: current standard.
Skills programme — a short, credit-bearing part-qualification made up of selected unit standards (one slice extracted from a full qualification), with no tripartite agreement required. Outcome: part-qualification. Status: current, short-form. Assessment: per skill set.

What are notional hours?

Notional hours are the estimated total time a learner is expected to need to achieve all the learning outcomes of a qualification, part-qualification, or module — including everything, not just classroom time.

What’s included:

Contact/facilitation time (classroom or online sessions)
Self-study and reading
Research and assignment preparation
Practical/workplace application time
Preparation for and writing of assessments
Group work and project time

SAQA conversion rule: 1 NQF credit = 10 notional hours. So a qualification registered at 120 credits represents 1,200 notional hours of total expected learning time across all activities — not 120 hours, and not just time with a facilitator.

How does the legislation link Government, the QCTO, and SETAs?

The system runs across six tiers:

Tier 1 — Founding legislation: the National Qualifications Framework Act 67 of 2008 (establishes the NQF and SAQA’s mandate), the Skills Development Levies Act 9 of 1999 (imposes the 1% SDL on leviable payroll), and the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 (establishes SETAs and the levy-grant system).
Tier 2 — Government: the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) administers these Acts, sets national skills policy, and approves SETA scope and re-licensing.
Tier 3 — NQF custodian: SAQA registers qualifications, maintains the NLRD, evaluates foreign qualifications, verifies claimed qualifications, and coordinates the three Quality Councils.
Tier 4 — Delegated institutions: the QCTO designs occupational qualifications, accredits training providers, sets and oversees the EISA, and issues certificates. SETAs collect the SDL via SARS (20% mandatory / 80% discretionary), approve WSP/ATR submissions, fund and register learnerships, and publish the Sector Skills Plan.
Tier 5 — Implementation: accredited training providers deliver theory and coordinate assessment; employers pay the SDL, host learners, submit WSP/ATR, and claim B-BBEE points. Key compliance touchpoints include the April WSP/ATR submission deadline, the B-BBEE Skills Development element, and ETI eligibility for unemployed youth under 30.
Tier 6 — Outcome: the learner is trained, assessed via EISA, and certified with an NQF-registered qualification.

All institutions report into DHET, which administers the three founding Acts and approves SETA establishment, scope, and re-licensing every five years.

How do you know when and where to train staff?

Triggers (when): a skills gap surfaces through reviews, audits, or quality issues; a compliance requirement (OHS, COIDA, sector mandates); new systems, equipment, or processes; new hires needing onboarding; career pathing and succession planning; or the annual WSP/SSP reporting cycle.
Diagnosis (where): a training needs analysis pinpoints exactly who and where the gap sits, using performance data (job vs. competency gap), employee/manager input, and audit or compliance findings.
Prioritise: weigh identified needs against budget and available SETA discretionary funding.
Select the intervention type: a learnership (full qualification), a skills programme (targeted, short), a short course, or e-learning (traditional/online or self-paced).
Document, deliver, report: document the intervention in the WSP, deliver it, and report outcomes in the ATR — resulting in a closed skills gap, a grant claim, and B-BBEE points.

What's the practical difference between a learnership and a skills programme?

	Learnership	Skills Programme
Pathway	Full qualification pathway; tripartite agreement	Targeted part-qualification; no tripartite agreement
Outcome	Full NQF qualification, SAQA ID, full credit load	Part-qualification — skill set with partial credits
Duration	6–24 months, typically 12	Days to a few months
Assessment	EISA exit assessment; theory + supervised practice	Internal assessment, no EISA; mostly theory-based
B-BBEE	Highest weighting	Lower weighting, still counts
Grant fit	Primary vehicle for SETA discretionary funding	Eligible, generally smaller amounts
ETI fit	Strong, especially unemployed youth under 30	Possible, if linked to a qualifying contract
Use case	Full, credit-bearing career progression	Quick upskilling on one competency
WSP/ATR	Detailed tracking	Lighter, less granular obligation

The deciding factor: no tripartite agreement + no full qualification outcome = skills programme, regardless of what internal client documents call it.

Who's eligible for a learnership?

Employer eligibility: a registered, levy-paying employer whose role aligns with the qualification outcome. SETA criteria for the specific sector may vary.

Learner eligibility — two paths:

Employed learners — already employed by the host employer, with no fixed age limit.
Unemployed learners — SA citizens at minimum entry level, with youth (especially under 35, ideally under 30 for ETI) treated as a priority, along with designated-group preference for B-BBEE/EE purposes.

Both paths require a registered, non-lapsed learnership agreement with a SETA, properly motivated and reported in the WSP/ATR.

Funding eligibility layer (for discretionary grants) adds further priority criteria on top of base eligibility: unemployed youth, people with disabilities, and rural/township location.

Criteria vary year to year and SETA to SETA — always confirm against the latest discretionary grant policy framework before finalising learner selection. There’s no hard legal bar based on designated groups; this is a funding/scorecard optimisation factor, not a strict eligibility requirement.

Who's eligible for non-accredited e-learning courses?

Non-accredited e-learning has no NQF registration, no SAQA credits, and no SETA/QCTO oversight — so there’s no statutory eligibility gate. No SAQA entry criteria around age, citizenship, or group membership apply.

Eligibility is instead set by:

Employer policy — role relevance, department, and whether it’s mandatory or optional
Platform terms — available license seats, user roles, and relevance to role/operations

The outcome is a certificate of attendance or completion only. It’s still reportable in the WSP/ATR under “informal” or “other forms of training,” and it counts toward B-BBEE Skills Development spend at a lower weighting than accredited training. It doesn’t attract SETA grant funding, since that requires an NQF-registered intervention.

In short: eligibility here is a business decision, not a compliance gate.

What's the difference between accredited and non-accredited training?

	Accredited training	Non-accredited training
Framework	Inside the statutory NQF framework	Outside the statutory NQF framework
Registration	NQF registered, SAQA credits	No NQF registration, no credits
Provider	SETA/QCTO-accredited provider	No SETA/QCTO oversight
Outcome	Qualification or part-qualification	Certificate of attendance only
Assessment	Formal, e.g. EISA	Internal or none
Entry criteria	NQF-aligned entry criteria	No statutory entry criteria
Agreement	Tripartite agreement or enrolment	No tripartite agreement needed
Grant funding	Eligible for SETA grant funding	Not eligible for SETA grants
B-BBEE weighting	Higher weighting	Lower weighting
Examples	Learnerships, skills programmes	In-house e-learning, vendor courses

The core distinction: accredited training sits inside the statutory NQF framework — registered, quality-assured, fundable. Non-accredited sits entirely outside it.

What are the benefits of non-accredited training?

Non-accredited training solves what accredited training can’t: an urgent skills gap with no time to wait for accreditation, a tight budget with a big headcount to train, a slow rollout through formal accreditation, or generic content that doesn’t fit your business.

The win:

Launch in days, not months — no waiting on SETA/QCTO accreditation cycles
A fraction of the cost — scales to your whole workforce at minimal marginal spend
Built around your business — your systems, your branding, your exact process, no padding
Update it whenever you need — no formal change process; revise content the moment it shifts

It still works for compliance: it counts toward B-BBEE spend (not wasted spend, just lower weighted) and demonstrates a learning culture that strengthens EE development reporting.

The smart play: pair it with your accredited learnerships and skills programmes — accredited training wins the grant funding and top scorecard points, while non-accredited training fills every gap accredited training can’t move fast enough for.

What is Total Quality Management (TQM) and why does it matter here?

A Quality Management System (QMS) is a mandatory accreditation requirement — not an optional best practice, but a compliance gate.

Who sets the requirement:

SAQA sets the overarching quality framework
QCTO mandates a QMS for provider accreditation
SETAs verify the QMS before approving grant funding

It applies to every accredited training provider — public, private, and in-house provider units.

Required QMS elements include a documented quality policy, assessment quality assurance, facilitator/assessor competency, records and evidence retention, internal moderation, learner support and appeals, and self-evaluation with corrective action plans. These are verified at re-accreditation cycles, typically every 3–5 years, plus spot audits.

If the QMS is maintained, accreditation is retained and grant funding/EISA access continues. If it fails audit, accreditation can be suspended or withdrawn along with grant funding and EISA access.

Why this matters for compliance work: a client’s WSP/ATR and grant claims are only as strong as the training provider’s QMS behind them — verifying provider accreditation status is a prerequisite check before motivating any intervention.

How do TQM principles apply across different industries?

The same core TQM principles apply everywhere — customer focus, process discipline, continuous improvement — but the metrics, tools, and standards used to measure them change by sector:

Manufacturing — metric: defect rate/scrap %; tools: Six Sigma, SPC charts; standard: ISO 9001, IATF 16949; training: machine operations, safety SOPs; focus: consistency on the line.
Services / BPO — metric: CSAT, first-call resolution; tools: call scoring, NPS surveys; standard: ISO 9001, COPC; training: soft skills, scripting; focus: consistent customer experience.
Healthcare — metric: patient safety incidents; tools: clinical audits, root-cause review; standard: ISO 9001, OHSC norms; training: clinical protocol, hygiene; focus: zero patient harm.
Skills development / training providers — metric: pass rate, EISA results; tools: M&E trackers, learner surveys; standard: QCTO accreditation criteria; training: facilitator CPD, moderation; focus: credible, fundable outcomes.

What does a training provider's Quality Management System actually cover?

A training provider’s QMS is the internal system that proves consistent quality, built on four operational pillars:

Governance and policy — quality policy and objectives, roles and responsibilities, document/version control, an academic/quality board.
Programme design and delivery — curriculum design and review, facilitator competency/CPD, infrastructure and resource checks, workplace learning monitoring.
Assessment and moderation — valid and fair assessment design, internal moderation of decisions, EISA readiness tracking, portfolio of evidence retention.
Learner support — induction and orientation, a complaints and appeals process, reasonable accommodation, progress and pass-rate tracking.

These feed a continuous improvement loop: monitor performance data → internal audit/self-evaluation → corrective action closing identified gaps → management review. The QCTO/ETQA and relevant SETA then verify this through site visits, document review, and learner sampling — a pass retains accreditation and grant-funded status, a fail triggers a corrective period or suspension.

For a compliance review: when vetting a training provider for a client’s learnership, request evidence from each pillar above — not just the accreditation certificate, which only confirms the QMS existed once.

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