Nine SADC countries geared for qualifications framework

Nine Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries are implementing a comprehensive qualifications framework, which will both facilitate mutual recognition of qualifications and ensure the easy movement of students and workers within the bloc’s 16 countries.

The Southern African Development Community Qualifications Framework – the SADCQF – which covers higher education, technical and vocational education and training, as well as schooling, provides a mechanism for comparability and the recognition of qualifications within the SADC. It also coordinates qualifications, promotes the transfer of credits within and among member states, and creates SADC regional standards.

The implementation of the SADCQF followed its approval by the SADC ministers responsible for education and training, science, technology and innovation in 2011, and the development of principles for the framework since then.

On the SADC’s principle of quality enhancement and the strengthening of education and training in the region, the framework states: “The SADCQF is aimed at fundamentally using the qualifications dynamic to enhance the quality, relevance and impact of education and training throughout the SADC and to serve the interests of all the citizens of the region.”

Six implementation areas

The Technical Committee on Certification and Accreditation (TCCA) – comprising a group of experts from the 16 SADC member states and supported by the SADC secretariat – was constituted and given the task of implementing the SADCQF.

The bloc has come up with six implementation areas that have been championed by five countries: governance (SADC secretariat); quality assurance (Botswana); verification (Eswatini); recognition of prior learning, credit accumulation, transfer and articulation (Namibia); advocacy and communication (Zambia); and development and alignment (South Africa).

South Africa’s Department of Higher Education and Training has been giving updates on the implementation of the SADC framework. One of them said that after piloting the framework in eight countries, the SADC’s TCCA also aimed to roll out the programme in the remaining eight countries.

“Eight SADC countries are piloting alignment of their national qualifications frameworks or national qualifications systems with the SADCQF. The pilot countries are Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia. An alignment plan and roadmap, as well as alignment timelines, were developed to assist the eight pilot countries,” the update read.

New committee to align systems

The department has established a National Alignment Committee to spearhead and approve the process of aligning its higher education system with that of the SADC, and the committee comprises six national bodies: the Council on Higher Education, the Department of Basic Education, the Department of Higher Education and Training, Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, the South African Qualifications Authority and Umalusi.

The SADC’s Director of Social and Human Development (SHD), Duduzile Simelane, was quoted in the August edition of the SADC newsletter reporting that the SADCQF held numerous benefits for all 16 countries.

She said these included promoting dialogue and mutual understanding; creating a wider pool of knowledge, skills, values and experience in the region, so that countries could begin to fill their training gaps and collaborate in highly specialised training; increasing access to skilled and knowledgeable personnel through a more efficient, rational and standardised system; allowing learners and workers greater flexibility and mobility within the region; and increasing the pool of learning opportunities.

The report said the SADC was also establishing a 'University of Transformation', a virtual institute based on the concept of a network of partners, with centres of excellence and specialisation that would utilise open and distance learning, online courses, and courses for professional development.

Aspects to support industrialisation strategy

It added that the university’s focus would be on entrepreneurship, innovation, commercialisation, technology transfer, enterprise development, digital and knowledge economy, and intellectual property rights to support the implementation of the SADC’s industrialisation strategy.

In order to implement the decision to establish the regional institution of higher learning, the SADC secretariat has been mandated to conduct a comprehensive regional skills audit to map existing qualifications and academic programmes that are on offer. In addition, it would also identify skill gaps to inform the programmes to be offered and the type of operational and governance structures to be established.