Is your company registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)? I have been told that some providers think there is a choice between QCTO and DHET – and anyway they are accredited by a SETA. This is a dangerous misunderstanding.
The DHET is a government department in charge of with 3 quality councils, Umalusi for basic, CHE for higher education and the QCTO is the quality council for occupational qualifications and part qualifications.
The DHET requires all providers of National Qualification Framework (NQF) registered qualifications to be registered with DHET. The DHET is a company registration
The current SETA accreditation is to provide training on legacy qualifications. The SETA is mandated by the QCTO to provide this. All SETA accreditation will move to the QCTO. All legacy qualifications were re-registered on the 1st July 2018, and are in the process of being re-aligned to occupational qualifications. So, once the qualification that you are offering has been aligned to an occupational qualification, and is registered on the QCTO website, then you will require QCTO accreditation. The legacy qualifications will NOT continue.
The QCTO will accredit you per occupational qualification - per site of delivery. The word here is Accreditation.
The DHET is a Compulsory Registration - happening since March 2017 and the deadline is this month end. The consequences are seen on page 10 of the Registration Guideline.
Previously the private Skills Development Providers (SDPs) could not be registered with the Department because the Skills Development Act (SDA), 1998 (Act No. 97 of 1998), as amended, in its current form does not provide for registration of SDPs only to be accredited in order to operate legally in South Africa.
In order to fulfil the provision of Section 29(3) of the Constitution, a Joint Communiqué 1 of 2016: The Registration and Accreditation for Private Education Providers Offering Qualifications and Part-Qualifications on the Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework was promulgated in October 2016. This Joint Communiqué calls on all SDPs to lodge their applications for registration as private colleges with the Department of Higher Education and Training.
Do not confuse Accreditation and Registration.
The QCTO application for accreditation is not complicated. There is one set standard instead of 21 SETAs with different rules.
The DHET application for registration is compulsory, with required documents to ensure that the provider is compliant.
What should be done first? The compulsory registration with DHET, the QCTO accreditation application does not have a deadline at the moment.
So providers - whether you are accredited to offer one single legacy unit standard or a full legacy qualification, or a QCTO occupational qualification, it is compulsory for you to be registered with the DHET.
