South African Qualifications Authority is an acronym for South African Qualifications Authority. It is made up of 12 members who are nominated by the education department of South Africa and approved by the Minister of Labour. The SAQA is recognized as a legal entity. This means it has all of the rights and responsibilities of a natural person, as well as the ability to perform legal acts. With the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) as its conduit, SAQA aims to promote a high level of long-term education and training in South Africa. The South African Qualifications Authority Act (SAQA Act), No. 58 of 1995, established SAQA.
The NQF is central to all of SAQA’s goals. This is a system for classifying, registering, and publishing quality-assured qualifications for education and training in South Africa that has been approved by the Minister of Education. The NQF is expected to establish a single learning-achievement standard, improve and maintain the quality of national education and training, address past employment and education discrimination, and make it easier for people to achieve their career goals. SAQA is in charge of ensuring that the NQF’s aforementioned goals are met.
SAQA also oversees the system’s sub-frameworks, which include General and Further Education and Training, Higher Education, and Trades and Occupations. Quality councils (QCs) are assigned to these sections of the NQF, which were established by the NQF Act No. 67 of 2008 to ensure the development and quality of the sub-frameworks. In accordance with the GENFETQA Amendment Act, Umalusi is the quality assurer for General and Further Education and Training. The Council on Higher Education (CHE) was established as the QC for Higher Education by the Higher Education Amendment Act. The Quality Council for Trades and Occupations is the QC for Trades and Occupations, according to the Skills Development Amendment Act.
The NQF has ten framework levels, which are tiers of learning achievement labeled one through ten in ascending order in the NQF. A level descriptor is used to describe the level of achievement at each NQF framework level. The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) awards national certificates and diplomas at levels five to eight as of March 2011. A minimum credit value of 120 is required for the former, while 240 credits are required for the latter.
Bachelor’s degrees can be earned starting at level six and requiring 360 credits. A professional bachelor’s degree, on the other hand, necessitates 480 credits at the level seven level. The CHE established the Higher Education Qualifications Framework in 2007, which allows master’s and doctoral degrees at levels nine and ten, respectively.