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PhDs are important for South Africa’s growth: more support for doctoral candidates who work full-time is key

Some PhD candidates also work full time and have other responsibilities.

South Africa has a joblessness crisis: fixing it will take fresh thinking to find a game-changer

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The NQF is the National Qualifications Framework, which contains 10 levels of qualifications, and is managed by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).  

There are three sub-frameworks of the NQF: 

There has been a lot in the news lately about the QCTO - the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations. 

The QCTO is a Quality Council that falls under the Department of Higher Education and Training. 

The QCTO is responsible for the quality assurance of qualifications that are registered on the Occupational Qualifications Sub-framework (OQSF) of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). That is qualifications that relate to the world of work - mainly occupations and trades, but also may be professional qualifications. 

There are three Quality Councils: 

• The HE QC - the Higher Education Quality Council, which falls under the responsibilities of the Council on Higher Education (CHE);
• UMALUSI - the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training; and
• The QCTO - the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations. 

Skills Development Providers and practitioners have now had the time to read and digest the content - and importantly the implications of the content - following publication of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) Directive setting out the process for the pre-2009 (legacy) qualification transition to occupational qualification format.

The Department of Higher Education and Training has finally gazetted the long-anticipated Directive confirming the transitional arrangements for pre-2009 qualifications to be replaced by qualifications in the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) occupational qualification format. Please see the document attached.  

The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) has published an amended Policy for Evaluating Foreign Qualifications within the South African NQF (National Qualifications Framework). This 2024 policy amends and replaces the previous Policy and Criteria for Evaluating Foreign Qualifications within the South African NQF published in 2017. 

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has invited comments on the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) Implementation Framework for the Post-school Education and Training (PSET) system.

Please see attached document for comments to be emailed to Mr. Ditupa Fothane at [email protected] 

by no later than 12h00 on Saturday, 22 June 2024.