(How should SAQA registered qualifications and unit standards influence OHS training in the work place?)

This article looks at some practical aspects of SAQA and the NQF linked to the requirements of the Skills Development Act. The writer gives a brief overview of the qualifications generating process and current reality in terms of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS). It gives easy, step-by-step directions on how to access any qualification or unit standard and then it closes with some practical guidelines on how to go about to decide what unit standards and service providers suit your need best. The writer tried to keep it as brief as possible to prevent people falling asleep when reading this, but this should trigger all OHS practitioners to ensure they get what they really need in terms of training!

Background

The SAQA Act and related legislation introduced in die middle of the 1990’s had as it’s main aim the standardising and streamlining of an education and training system seen by many as unfair and inadequate to address the needs of the new South Africa. These Acts initiated a massive change in the fabric of education and training in the country, and it seems as if the implications of the changes were even more far-reaching than the legislator himself anticipated.

To start with, the SAQA Act was written to provide for the development and implementation of a National Qualifications Framework and with it the South African Qualifications Authority was formed so that this framework could be established. The objectives of the National Qualifications Framework are to – 

a)        create an integrated national framework for learning achievements;
b)        facilitate access to, and mobility and progression within education, training and career paths;
c)        enhance the quality of education and training;
d)        accelerate the redress of past unfair discrimination in education, training and employment opportunities; and thereby
e)        contribute to the full personal development of each learner and the social and economic development of the nation at large (SAQA Act, 1995).

The bodies established by the Act are amongst other the Standards Generating Bodies (SGB’s) whose main function is the writing of unit standards and qualifications in their areas of expertise.  SGB’s are grouped in twelve fields of learning, now referred to as organising fields, previously known as National Standards Bodies (NSB’s).

The SGB: Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) was first established in 2001 based on the legislated requirements of the SAQA Act with representation from each of the six identified stakeholder groups namely education and training providers, State Departments, Organised Business, Organised Labour, Community/Learner Organisation and Critical Interest Groups. The SGB has been well supported by most of the interest groups through its previous terms although organised labour and the Department of Labour have been absent for long periods.

The SGB have been working in three working groups since its inception. The first working group looked after the occupational medicine component that contributed to the writing of occupational health nursing and occupational medicine qualifications.

This group was later replaced by a working group focusing on primary emergency care, after a request by SAQA. The second group is dealing with occupational hygiene and the third group is taking responsibility for occupational safety.

The SGB: OHS have been mandated to write qualifications and unit standards from level one to eight and that they set out doing based on the, by now well known, proposed OHS qualifications framework (see attached table). At the end of its second term, the SGB had registered three qualifications:

• National Certificate (NC): Occupational Safety, Hygiene and Environment at NQF Level Two
• NC: Occupational Hygiene and Safety at NQF Level Three
• Further Education and Training Certificate: Occupational Hygiene and Safety at NQF Level Four.

At the time of writing, the NC: Occupational Safety at NQF Level Five has been published for comment and should be registered shortly. Two more have been submitted to SAQA for registration, two have been finished and circulated for comment and three more were in the final stages of completion. Besides all that, up to six more qualifications still have to be written and registered and seeing that the first qualifications and unit standards registered are now at the end of their registration period, review of those also need to take place.

Where do I find the registered qualifications and unit standards?

All qualifications and unit standards are freely available on the SAQA website. The easiest way to get to it is to go to www.saqa.org.za. From there follow the link to Qualifications and Unit standards indicated:

That will take you to a screen giving you the option of searching several databases with qualifications and unit standards. In our case we want to search the registered qualifications and unit standards.

The next screen gives the choice of searching for qualifications or unit standards. Because SAQA has recently added a very user friendly feature where the qualifications and unit standards are linked, we go to the qualifications.

That leads to a page with a number of search fields the best of which, if you don’t know theSAQA ID number, is to go and search under the SGB: Occupational Health and Safety, from the drop down menu provided. Press go.

That would then take you to the page with the search results as shown. From there click on the qualification you want to go to, for instance the FETC: OHS NQF Level 4, as indicated.

The complete qualification will appear on screen. Should you want to go to a specific unit standard, go to the last pages of the qualifications where the unit standard matrix is shown, find the unit standard you want to go to and click on the number.

That takes you directly to the unit standard and all your searching is over!

I have now found the unit standard or qualification I was looking for, so what?

The reason you would be looking for something on the SAQA website would be to see whether there are something about some training you feel is needed in the company. That is usually a gut feel reaction to some prompt in the workplace like somebody getting an injury or somebody complaining that they haven’t had training in years. Of course simply reacting to such inputs is not the correct response.

What should happen is that the company should take a pro-active approach by following accepted human resource development practice by doing a proper training needs analysis. This is also expected for workplace skills plan (WSP) purposes. So please don’t do the same thing over three times, all parties should work together and compile a document that becomes a real working and planning document for the rest of the year.

Once your training needs are properly identified, a next step would be to go and look for unit standards or qualifications that address those needs. This sound rather easy, but that is not quite true. Unit standard titles are sometimes confusing and one must open the unit standard to see what each one is really about.

When you find a unit standard that best addresses your need, you need to decide whether you can use it as is or if you need something more specific. In that case you have to make one of three choices:

a.             The unit standard covers your need sufficiently and you may use it as is.

b.             The unit standard addresses the need only partially therefore you either need to add information to cover the gap, or you may add another unit standard to cover the gap.

c.             None of the unit standards really addresses your needs, in which case you may decide to stay away from unit standards altogether and compile your own, customised training.

Of course your decision will be influenced by things such as number of learners, company policy on using accredited as opposed to unaccredited training and the bigger picture of allowing learners to accumulate credits. Once that is decided, most companies would start looking for a service provider that can provide the identified training.

How do I ensure my service provider is right for me?

Finding a suitable training service provider is potentially a rather risky exercise, so how would you ensure that you get what you really need?

Firstly, based on your training needs analysis you would be able to properly define the objective, contents, level and scope of training of every training intervention required. If you don’t do that, you are placing yourself at the mercy of the training provider that can potentially tell you a lot of nonsense about the training they present and you will not have your own criteria to measure their offering against.

Secondly, invite a number of credible providers to make submissions on their capability to service your training needs as defined and stipulated in the invitation. Assemble a group of knowledgeable people from the organisation to listen to and evaluate each of the presentations. This group should preferably come from the OHS, Operations and HR departments of your organisation.

Thirdly, evaluate each of the providers on a set of objective criteria to ensure fairness and consistency and thus ensure you get the best possible provider. The following criteria might be considered as a guideline:

a.             How well is the provider able to address your own specific needs as stipulated? Remember in this case that although it would make things easier for you if one provider can do everything, the chances are that no one provider can serve all your needs. Rather opt for different providers that will give you a better fit per course, than one provider that will most probably not be able to give you a perfect fit for all training.

b.             Cost. Of course cost is always an issue but be aware of very low quoted prices. Training is not a cheap service to deliver and if a person quotes you a very low price it is most probably because they are compromising on quality somewhere. That could be on time spent on delivery, or the quality of the person delivering the training. You can bet that a cheap resource has less experience and background as opposed to a pricier resource, which would be able to provide better quality training.

c.             Accreditation. This is the latest buzz word in training. The following must be checked when it comes to accreditation.

                                        i.  Can the provider show that he has accreditation as a training service provider? Of course full accreditation is better than provisional accreditation, but be aware that some SETA’s only give provisional accreditation (I’m not quite sure why). So if they only have provisional accreditation, confirm the reason for that, before a decision is made. When you confirm accreditation status please don’t only use the SETA website, it seems as if some SETA websites are months outdated, and you may just disqualify a good provider because his information is not on the site yet. Phone and confirm with the ETQA division within the SETA.

                                        ii.  Does the provider have accreditation for the specific unit standards that you require? Remember if they don’t and you want accreditation so that your people will get the credits for the training, the provider will have to apply for such accreditation as part of a so-called extension of scope. It may be quicker than an initial application, but it may still take time. Should the unit standard fall outside the ambit of the provider’s SETA, a memorandum of understanding needs to be signed between the relevant SETA’s, which would also have a time implication.

                                        iii.  Does the provider have accredited assessors and moderators for the specific unit standards you require? Theoretically, if they have accreditation for the specific unit standard, they should have assessors and moderators for that as well, but be aware, there are loopholes in the system. Remember, the facilitator and the assessor could be two different people. The implication of that is that it might look as if the quality of people that will deliver the service is very good, but actual delivery could be done by somebody with less background and experience.

d.             Flexibility. Does the provider have the ability to adapt to your needs in terms of delivery schedules, venues and customisation of material? Remember, customisation could potentially impact on the accreditation status of material.

Conclusion

Training in South Africa is not what it used to be, but it is not yet where it could be either. The changes effected by the new education legislation has such far reaching effects that one could expect a number of years to pass before a new stability will set in, although a lot have been achieved already. The implications for people looking for training in general and OHS training in particular are that the rules are not that clear yet and a lot will be expected of OHS staff to ensure the best possible results from providers. So to be sure you get the right stuff, do some homework and don’t let the training providers mislead you with half truths and omissions!

Joep Joubert

PROPOSED QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK FOR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY