NQF Support Link

Implementation of the NQF

Overview

About the NQF

The NQF was developed to transform the education and training system in South Africa, through re-shaping the way learning achievements are described, organised and valued. The NQF is the system through which people’s learning is recognised. It sets up ways in which standards as descriptions of learning are developed and registered, and ways in which qualifications can be put together.

The NQF is designed to support the principles of relevant and life long learning. Its underlying rationale is to open up learning and career pathways for all South Africans, regardless of their previous education, training or work experience.
About SAQA

SAQA is the statutory body created to oversee the development and implementation of the NQF. It represents key stakeholders in education and training. SAQA formulates policies and processes to carry out functions linked to the NQF. Its tasks include the development of:

A system for setting nationally recognised and internationally comparable standards and qualifications for all NQF levels.
A national quality assurance system to monitor and evaluate quality in education and training, through accredited bodies.
An electronic management information system to record learner achievements (the National Learners' Record Database).

The objectives and principles of the NQF

The NQF objectives as set out in the SAQA Act are to:

create an integrated national framework for learning achievements;
facilitate access to, and mobility and progression within, education, training and career paths;
enhance the quality of education and training;
accelerate the redress of past unfair discrimination in education, training and employment opportunities; and thereby
contribute to the full personal development of each learner and the social and economic development of the nation at large.

The principles of the NQF, formulated after long debates among stakeholders, are:

Integration: Different systems and approaches to be brought together (e.g. theory and practice, and education and training).
Relevance: Education and training to be relevant to social, economic and political development and to learner needs.
Credibility: The education and training system to have national and international value and acceptance.
Coherence: Areas of learning to be connected together in a framework of learning, which enables learners to move easily from one learning situation to another, building up certificates and credits as they go.
Flexibility: Different routes or pathways to lead to the same learning ends.
Standards-based: Programmes to be based on nationally and internationally accepted units of learning, which are structured around outcomes, and presented in a nationally agreed framework.
Legitimacy: All national stakeholders to participate in the planning and co-ordination of standards and qualifications.
Accessibility: Prospective learners to be able easily to enter the education and training system at the appropriate level to pursue relevant learning and career pathways.
Articulation: Learners to be able to move between the various parts of the education and training system as they complete each accredited unit.
Progression: Learners to be able to move up and across the different levels of the education and training system, following various routes, and thereby to build up a national qualification.
Portability: Learners to be able to transfer the credits and qualifications gained in one learning situation or institution to another.
RPL: Credit to be given for learning that has already been acquired, e.g. through life experience or non-formal training courses.
Guidance for learners: Learners to be assisted to understand and make decisions about entry into and progression through the education and training system.

Frequently Asked Questions

The SAQA document ‘The NQF: An Overview’ gives a thorough and concise tour of the NQF, describing its levels, fields of learning, unit standard and qualifications design elements, and related structures. This document is written in the form of answers to many FAQs about the NQF and the functions of SAQA. These general questions are therefore not repeated in this section. The FAQs in this section aim only to give updates where feasible.

The NQF is a ‘work-in-progress’. As implementation has proceeded over the past eleven years, there have been various official studies and reviews carried out by SAQA itself, and by the Departments of Education and Labour. Because of this it may be that some of the questions that could be asked do not have final answers: we are in a transition phase, and various features and elements of the NQF and SAQA landscape are under review. You need to refer to the Upcoming Changes section on the General Page or on this Page: the Draft NQF Bill, the Joint Statement and the Higher Education Qualifications Framework address various changes which are under discussion, such as the number of levels on the NQF and the establishment of the Qualifications Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO).

Category: SAQA Structures and Relationships to Role Players

1. What is SAQA’s role in Quality Assurance? click here
2. How does SAQA’s organisational structure reflect its functions? click here
3. Who are SAQA’s current partners in its work? click here

Category: Unit Standards and Qualifications Design

4. What are the key issues in the design of NQF-registered qualifications? click here
5. What are the key issues in designing unit standards for the NQF? click here

Category: Implementing the NQF

6. Why should my organisation engage with the NQF – what are the consequences of
not doing so? click here
7. How can I be sure that my organisation is working within the NQF? click here

Useful Guidelines, Extracts, Tools and Templates

In this section you will find a range of SAQA documents and other texts on the NQF.

The National Qualifications Framework: An Overview. SAQA Publication 2003 click here

Criteria and Guidelines for the Generation and Evaluation of Qualifications and Standards within the NQF. SAQA, August 2005 click here

The NQF and Standards Setting. SAQA, July 2000 click here

The National Qualifications Framework and Quality Assurance. SAQA 2000 click here

Basson, C. SAQA’s Role in the Quality Assurance of Occupationally Directed Qualifications. Paper presented at Q-Africa Conference, Midrand, November 2007 click here

Vorwerk, C. Occupational Qualications Framework. Proposals for a revised approach to the development and management of occupational qualifications on the NQF. Paper presented at Q-Africa Conference, Midrand, November 2007 click here

Overview: OBET and the NQF click here

OBET: A Summary of Issues click here

Overview: Values and Principles of the NQF click here

Reflecting on the NQF: Tools for Providers
Various templates developed for the NQF Support Link are brought together as an aid to self evaluation on fitting into the NQF. click here

Overview: The Critical Cross-Field Outcomes SAQA, 2007. Investigating the use of the Critical Cross-Field Outcomes in the design of ABET qualifications and unit standards: the impact of the Critical Outcomes on curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in ABET. Research Report by M King, November 2007.
While this research was undertaken in the context of ABET, it contains useful information about the origin of the critical outcomes in the NQF. It also discusses other research with a broad application on the contextualisation of the critical outcomes in curriculum and assessment. click here