Nigel Shipston

Hi Des,
This is an area that causes much miscommunication. To add to the confusion and to follow on what Lynel said, mix in the DoL or DoT Approval required for certain courses subject to Regulations, such as First Aid, Lifting Machinery Operators and Convey dangerous goods by road.

In short we have:
1. Accreditation awarded to a training…[Read more]

Hi Cobus, our industry is fraught with fraud and unethical practices, and it is thanks to the inability of people to work independently in an ethical manner that we are all subject to controls. While nothing is perfect, the protection of Learners, employers and training providers is important to ensuring better quality training/educational…[Read more]

Hi Andrea and Cobus,
Any provider who is accredited for any qualification, skills programme or even a single unit standard registered on the NQF must register with DHET. For those that receive accreditation in the future, the registration needs to done ASAP after accreditation is awarded. These requirements may seem obstructive, but when we look…[Read more]

Hi Malose,
You get accreditation first, and once you have that you apply to DHET for Registration.

Hi Sylvia,
Our biggest problem is that of communication. When Lynel and I met with the senior management earlier this year, they indicated that they have a Department that liaises with the SETA’s and that all communications would be done through this Department. However, in view of the range of “interpretations” coming from SETA’s to providers,…[Read more]

Hi Kate,
Whether the contemplation was serious or otherwise would have depended on those responsible for developing the qualifications. I think being reasonably guided by the credits is the answer to development of a learning programme. Personally I prefer to focus on maintaining content to the level prescribed, as all too often developers…[Read more]

Hi Kate,
This has always been a sore point, but it seems that the mere fact that it is described as a “notion” (idea, belief, concept etc.) indicates that it is not a fixed point. SAQA indicates the following in their Developing Learning Programmes for NQF-registered Qualifications and Unit Standards document:

Do credits dictate learning…[Read more]

Hi Sylvia,
There is some input from QCTO, but all these policies originate from times prior to QCTO. When SAQA accredited SETA ETQA’s originally, despite the SAQA Guidelines provided, they all interpreted or focused on certain aspects of these guidelines. The result was that they all emanated from a central point and headed off to different…[Read more]

Hi Sylvia,
I agree that “best practice” would be an idea to improve SETA’s in general. But it is equally important that the right type of people carry out these practices. Interestingly, there is a situation at the SETA with which I normally work, where the ETQA Manager left a short while ago and there is now an Acting ETQA Manager taking…[Read more]

Hi Sylvia,
The re-arranging of the SETA landscape is a pointless exercise. The core complaints regarding SETA’s goes about service delivery (or lack thereof) and inconsistency. One of the purposes of QCTO was to supply a “one stop shop”, where accreditation requirements remain consistent, and not as is currently the case, where each SETA has…[Read more]

Hi Sylvia/Karen,
This is one of those indeterminate issues where everybody has their own interpretation of retention periods. While 5 years appears to be a generally accepted practice, perhaps we should establish from QCTO what they consider acceptable retention periods for various records?