Reading Room

Although South Africa has many excellent universities and a wide range of courses on offer, there is still an allure to study overseas for many young people. For those who can afford it the universities of the UK will be very happy to consider students with a Matric for many courses. For some degrees a bridging course may be needed, but for many others an SA Matric is enough to get entry into a degree.

Do you need a financial advisor?

The profession of financial planning is relatively new, the average pensioner will tell you that in their youth financial planning was not even a recognisable term. 

During and after the Second World War the depression made it virtually impossible for most people to make ends meet, let alone have surplus money to invest. Access to financial advisors was the domain of the super rich.

LSSA and SASSETA Opportunity for candidate legal practitioners - Candidacy programme

Closing date extended to 7 June 2024

The Law Society of South Africa and SASSETA are offering an opportunity for candidates to partake in a Work Integrated Learning Programme (12 months – Candidacy programme). This programme is aimed at candidates that have completed their Practical Vocational Training that reduced their candidacy to 12 months (as per the Legal Practice Act, regulation 6(1)b). 

People are researching you. All kinds of people use all kinds of ways to learn about you. LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to control what they discover about your strengths and, more important, about your brand. Who are these people? People you know. People who want to know you. People who matter: Your prospects, employees,prospective employers, managers, clients, board members etc. They all use LinkedIn to learn about others.

The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) announced that job applicants are no longer required to submit certified copies of their educational qualifications and other relevant documents on their applications. 

This will cut the price of looking for a job when applying to work for the state. 

QCTO conversion of Legacy Skills Programmes into Occupational Skills Programmes

The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) has published the National Qualifications Framework Amendment Act 12 of 2019, (NQF Amendment Act) with the intention of preventing or at least minimising the use of fake certificates of qualification. 

The News & Updates forum on Basic Education 

https://www.skills-universe.com/forums/topic/open-for-comment-basic-education-laws-amendment-bill

carries further information on the invitation to submit comments on this bill to amend the South African School Act 84 of 1996, and the Employment of Educators Act 76 of 1998, by 16h00 on the 19th January, 2023.

The Bill is attached. 

Peter Magubane: courageous photographer who chronicled South Africa’s struggle for freedom

Kylie Thomas, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

We hear a lot about Learnerships but no so much about skills programmes. Are they the same thing - or is there a difference? 

They are similar, and it could be said that any training that leads to formal NQF recognition is a skills programme, there are formal definitions. 

Skills Programme

A skills programme is a unit standard or combination of unit standards that leads to an employable skill, and earns a credit on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) towards a qualification.