Accreditation in South Africa
We want to use this page to keep our students our graduates and any aspiring students up to date with the legal landscape of education and training in South Africa. To this end, we will try to ensure that this information that you see here helps us to all stay abreast of the changes occurring in South Africa and overseas in terms of education and training.
Accreditation of providers
There are significant legal requirements for all providers of education and training in South Africa (as well as overseas). Whether we offer learning programmes that lead to whole qualifications, short courses for skills certificates or learnerships that lead to qualifications, we are legally required to be accredited by the relevant quality assurance body.
For higher education providers who offer programmes that lead to level five qualifications or above, they have to be accredited by the Council for Higher Education (CHE). To offer level four, further education programmes the accrediting body is Umalusi. Then, to be able to offer short courses, skills based programmes or even whole qualifications; from 2010, the body responsible for quality assurance of these providers is the QCTO (Quality Committee for Trade and Occupation). Currently, the quality assurance function of the QCTO is represented by the SETAs and the SETA for sport and fitness providers is CASTHETA (Culture, Art, Sport, Tourism, Hospitality, Education and Training Authority).
No matter what education and training is offered by a provider, it has to be quality assured by one of the Education and Training Quality Assurance Bodies. This can be any one of the three bodies that are legally mandated to do this i.e. Council for Higher Education (CHE), Umalusi or the Quality Committee for Trade and Occupation (QCTO).
Reps SA
The eta is proud to be a recognised provider on the Register for Exercise Professionals South Africa. For more information about this accreditation, please go the Reps SA website at www.repssa.co.za.
Department of Higher Education and Training
If a provider decides to offer higher education programmes that lead to registered Higher Certificates at Level 5 or Diplomas at level 6, they must be accredited by the CHE and they must be registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a private provider of higher education and training.
If a provider decides to offer further education programmes that lead to registered Further Education and Training Certificates (FETC) at Level 4, they must be accredited by Umalusi and they must be registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a private provider of further education and training.
Whilst in the past, SETA based provider did not necessarily have to be registered with the Department of Higher Education & Training if they only offered short courses. From 2010, even providers of short courses that are satisfying the needs of industry must be accredited by the QCTO (currently managed through the SETAs). They must then be registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training.
In other words, from 2010 and with the changes in legislation in 2009 that led to this implementation in 2010, all providers of education and training must be quality assured by one of the quality assurance bodies and they must be registered with the Department of Education.
SAQA
SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) is responsible for registering qualifications that have been approved or accredited by the relevant Education and Training Quality Assuror. For example, if CHE accredits a programme that is offered by eta, the CHE then informs the Department of Education to register us and we also have to make sure that SAQA registers the actual qualification that we offer on the Qualifications Framework.
If you want to know more about accreditation and registration of providers, take a look at the following websites.
Council for Higher education: www.che.ac.za
Umalusi:www.umalusi.org.za
THETA: www.theta.org.za
Department of Education: www.education.gov.za
SAQA: www.saqa.org.z
