Qualifications

Umalusi`s mandate as a Quality Council derives from the NQF Act, Act No 67 of 2008, and its establishment act, the GENFETQA Act, Act No 58 of 2001, amended in 2008. As one of three Quality Councils, the others being the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO), Umalusi is required to develop and manage the quality of a sub-framework of qualifications for general and further education and training as part of the greater integrated National Qualifications Framework.

This means that Umalusi must develop and manage a range of qualifications for schooling, and for the post-school system as offered in Further Education and Training colleges and adult education and training centres. To that end, Umalusi has developed The General and Further Education and Training Qualifications Framework which has been submitted for regulation, and a supporting policy entitled Standard Setting and Quality Assurance for the General and Further Education and Training Qualifications Framework, which has been approved by Umalusi Council.

The sub-framework of qualifications has two distinct pathways, the first commencing with general education, leads to qualifications for 15 -19 year olds, mainly in schools but also in colleges, and the second, for adults starts with a general component and leads to an alternative matric for adults or to general vocational qualifications.

The qualifications currently certificated by Umalusi are as follows:

Matriculation qualifications:

• The Senior Certificate (SC) which was offered before 2008 and is being phased out - its final examination will be administered in 2014. Offered in schools and second chance institutions
• The National Senior Certificate (NSC) which replaced the Senior Certificate and commenced in 2008. Offered in schools

• The National Technical Certificate N3. Offered in FET colleges
• The National Senior Certificate: Colleges - phased out end of 2011. Offered in FET colleges
• The National Certificate: Vocational (NCV) - commenced in 2007. Offered in FET colleges

• The General Education and Training Certificate for Adults (GETC: ABET). Offered in Public Adult Learning Centres or workplaces and community facilities by private providers and NGO`s

• General Education and Training Certificate for Adults(GETCA)
• National Senior Certificate for Adults (NASCA)
• The National Independent Certificate (NIC)

The third qualification, the Intermediate Certificate, will fall between the GETC at NQF level 1 and the NIC and NASCA at NQF level 4, with the purpose of bridging the gap between the two levels.

Umalusi has also proposed certain qualifications on NQF level 5, but as this is currently viewed as higher education, changes will have to be effected to legislation to accommodate these proposals. Umalusi sees certain qualifications at this level as "post-school but closer to further education than higher education" and as such forms a continuum with the learning that has taken place at NQF 4.