With the expiration date of SETA-accredited learnerships looming at the end of June this year, companies are at a critical juncture for their Skills Development. From that point forward, organisations will only be able to register their learners for the QCTO’s occupational certificates. The question that Rajan Naidoo, the Managing Director of EduPower Skills Academy, is asking is whether South Africa is adequately prepared for this imminent and nuanced change.
“This change comes with huge potential impacts for learners, training providers and corporates,” Naidoo explains. “The transition from the SETA to the QCTO has been a very long and uncertain journey and currently, there seem to be more questions than there are answers.”
Naidoo believes that the most pressing questions that need to be addressed by the QCTO include:
The QCTO Occupational Certificates seem to have greater relevance than the SETA qualifications and they emphasise the relationship between qualifications and job titles, with direct relevance to the working world.
Concern, however, arises in the absence of equivalent NQF level occupational qualifications within the QCTO portfolio, especially for sectors such as Contact Centres where the Services SETA NQF level 3 and 4 qualifications have been ideal for unemployed learners. The looming expiration of these learnerships without adequate replacements raises questions about the readiness of the QCTO to directly address the needs of learners.
The QCTO requires an examination (EISA) at the end of the training process after which a Certificate of Competency will be issued. This is a step up from the SETA assessment and moderation process, but the scarcity of examination centres poses a challenge as this could potentially lead to monopoly pricing. The QCTO should regulate or provide guidance for the pricing of the examination or at least ensure there are sufficient accredited examination centres so that market forces can regulate pricing.
An outcome of the EISA is that the role of Assessors and Moderators in awarding qualifications also appears less important under the QCTO, These processes, however, are still required and warrant clear guidance regarding the minimum requirements for Assessors/Moderators – similar to the SETA’s required Constituent Registration, which was a defined process.