Many people know about NQF, but not really what it means or where it comes from. NQF stands for “National Qualifications Framework” and its origins are traced back to the labour movement in the early 1970s. Black trade unions’ demands for living wages were repeatedly rejected by their employers from the early 1970s, because they were unskilled and therefore their employers viewed their demands as unjustified. This lead to these black workers seeking training, as it was seen as a means to achieve their higher wages. The struggle of persuading employers to adhere to worker demands carried on into the 1980s until the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) established a research group comprising workers and union officials, to formulate recommendations on training. An integrated proposal was formulated on the assumption that skills development would lead to better wages, based on a staged improvement in skills, linked to grading increments. The proposal emphasized the need for basic education and also for portability and national recognition of training. This proposal was formally adopted by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in July 2001.
Along with demands for higher wages, the mid-1970s also earmarks a demand for change in education. Protests took place, first in Soweto and then nation-wide, which led to the discretisation and rejection of the entire education system. Eventually, non-governmental education sector resistance resulted in the formation of the National Education Policy Initiative (NEPI), which developed proposals for the restructuring of the formal education system. COSATU was closely involved with the NEPI process, which formed an alliance that continued through the period leading to the democratic elections of 1994.
President de Klerk’s announcement in 1990 of the government’s intention to dismantle apartheid was symptomatic of the change in policy towards worker and student demands. The Department of Manpower restructured the apprenticeship system into a competency-based modular training system through the National Training Board (NTB), however, unions saw this process as flawed as it excluded workers and because the proposals were narrowly focussed on apprenticeship to the exclusion of basic education, which was seen as a point of access to the skills training. The Department of Manpower and the trade union confederations met again in 1992 after a conflicting relationship, in an attempt to renew the process.
Then the Department of Education initiated its own process of policy discussions, which led to the Education Renewal Strategy. Although invited, the democratic alliance within the education sector declined to participate in the process on the grounds that the initiative lacked legitimacy, plus they viewed the system of the ERS which advocated three streams (academic, vocational and vocationally-oriented) as unpalatable. The education employer sector did take part in the process and advocated a seamless framework similar to the ones adopted by Scotland and New Zealand.
The 1992 meeting resulted in the formation of a representative Task Team, which established eight working groups charged with developing a new national training strategy. These working groups had representations from trade unions, employers, the State, providers of education and training, the ANC Education Department and the democratic alliance. In 1994 three documents were published, laying the foundation for the SAQA Act; the ANC Policy Framework for Education and Training, the Discussion Document on A National Training Strategy Initiative and the CEPD Implementation Plan for Education and Training. White papers on Education and Training (1995) and on Reconstruction and Development (1994) followed, both of which underscored the need for the development and implementation of the NQF.
The NQF Bill was drafted by an Inter-Ministerial Working Group and was passed into law as the South African Qualification Authority Act (No. 58 of 1995) on 4 October 1995.
A study team was appointed by the Ministers of Education and Labour in April 2001 to review the implementation of the NQF. Their published report drew a vigorous response. In turn the Departments of Education and Labour published a consultative document on the future of the NQF. Prolonged interdepartmental consultation and engagement with SAQA resulted in ministerial agreement in late 2007. A joint policy statement was published by the Ministers of Education and Labour on Enhancing the Efficacy and Efficiency of the National Qualifications Framework. This statement ended the review of NQF implementation which was running since 2001. It re-affirmed SAQA’s role at the apex of the education and training landscape plus the aims of the NQF. A new structure for the NQF was also presaged, such that the threesub-frameworks would be established under three Quality Councils (General and Further Education and Training, Higher Education and Trades and Occupations). Each of the QCs develops criteria for the registration of their own qualifications and qualification types by SAWA. The NQF Act No 67 of 2008 gives legislative effect to the new policy and replaces the South African Qualifications Authority Act.
This new Act aims to strengthen South Africa’s NQF and ensures that the various elements of the education and training system are integrated more effectively. It also seeks to streamline implementation of the NQF. The original goals of the NQF are retained, but organisational structures are to be changed with the view to continually improve efficiencies and effectiveness within the NQF.
