Press Release: URGENT ACTION REQUIRED by the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology to Extend ALL SETA Legacy Qualifications and Skills Programmes
Press Release: URGENT ACTION REQUIRED by the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology to Extend ALL SETA Legacy Qualifications and Skills Programmes
South Africa’s premiere, globally renowned and hugely popular Tourism Industry currently hangs in the balance. Professional Tourism Guides are the backbone of our Tourism Industry providing key opportunities, insights, travel opportunities, information, and knowledge to international and local guests and travellers alike.
As it stands, all Guides who have undertaken guiding as their professional career choice are in jeopardy, as are the business that employ them, the institutions that train them, the professional bodies that represent them and the visitors to our country that rely on them to create immersive, enriched, and valuable experiences through engagement in South African culture, heritage, adventure activities and iconic wildlife destinations.
All SETA legacy qualifications and each unit standard-based skills programme currently held within CATHSSETA have expired and are due to be replaced by the OQSF (Occupational Qualifications Sub Framework) format qualification, which is composed of theoretical, practical, and work experience modules.
New qualifications were meant to be re-scoped and mapped out across the tourism sector and in future registered with SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority). The qualifications were then meant to be implemented and managed by the QCTO within the NQF (National Qualifications Framework). With CATHSSETA being appointed as the Assessment Quality Partner.
However, in less than 10 weeks all SETAs relating to professional tourism guiding are set to expire with no replacement qualifications developed to be implemented as the replacements. This is going to create a crisis in our tourism industry where there will be no educational facility to train and develop new guides entering the industry as career professionals, or current guides looking to progress their qualifications to the next level.
The Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) est 2010 in terms of the Skills Development Act Nr. 97 of 1998 is mandated to do the following:
Oversee the design, implementation, assessment, and certification of occupational qualifications, including trades, on the Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework (OQSF).
Offer guidance to skills development providers who must be accredited by the QCTO to offer occupational qualifications.
The QCTO has failed in its duty to fulfil its mandated obligations of overseeing the design, implementation, assessment, and certification of all tourism guiding qualifications and skills programmes. There has also been a failure in offering support and guidance to skill development providers and occupational training delivery partners. Many of the due to expire skills programmes have not been aligned to the OQSF by the QCTO. Occupations Qualifications are still not developed, nor are any EISA Centers registered.
In Minister Dr. Blade Nzimande’s presentation the following points were brought forth as targets for the Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology:
- Infrastructure development for the provision of service delivery.
- Significant reduction in unemployment including amongst graduates.
- Sustainable entrepreneurship, SMMEs, and cooperatives which promotes self-employment.
- Holistic digitization and advancement of technological infrastructure and development to benefit the country.
- Effective and efficient shared services on information and communications technology.
- Fundamental rural development.
The status of the SETA legacy qualifications and skills programmes and their imminent expiry place all these targets at risk. With no alignment or replacement to the current skills programmes within the OQSF this will result in increased unemployment for graduates as there are fewer qualifications and career path options.
A lack of infrastructure development for the provision of service delivery especially to remote areas of the country that rely heavily on tourism for economic growth and success.
Little to no growth within sustainable entrepreneurship, SMMEs and cooperatives that promote self-employment as the ability to do these relies on professional and high-standard training and educational development.
Rural development which relies heavily on sustainable tourism will slow and economic growth will stagnate with a lack of qualified professionals.
It is with all of this that we have, as an industry, joined forces to petition the Department of Higher Education and Minister Dr. Blade Nzimande to extend the enrolment of the current skills programmes until the development, alignment, and registration of the relevant replacement qualifications has been finalised.
We implore all guides, guide trainers, guide employers, industry partners and stakeholders to take a few minutes to complete and submit the petition. Your voices hold great value and as an industry we do have the power to uplift each other through working together towards common goals.
You can find the link to the petition here.
Thank you for your support and commitment to the continued growth and development of South Africa’s Tourism Industry further enhancing the extreme value we as South Africa bring to the world.
To sign the petition, click here.
South African Training Providers Forum.
24 April 2024
