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OCCUPATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS: TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS UPDATE
- 15 June 2026
- Education & Training
- SA Legal Academy
Documents listing ‘legacy’ pre-2009 qualifications requiring ‘targeted extensions’ of between six to twenty-four months have not yet been gazetted. This is in the context of an ongoing transition to occupational qualifications affecting:
- learners
- training providers
- employers
- sectoral education and training authorities (SETAs), and
- institutions across the post-school education and training system.
According to a media statement recently issued by Higher Education & Training Minister Buti Manamela, the documents concerned were expected to be published on 15 June 2026.
They have particular implications for:
- learners working towards national accredited technical education certificates and diplomas, including N4 to N6 qualifications
- regulatory unit standards underpinning ‘important statutory and industry programmes’
- trades, and
- work-integrated learning programmes where students have completed the theoretical component of their training.
The duration of a ‘targeted extension’ will depend on:
- sector readiness
- learner impact
- ‘replacement qualification availability’, and
- labour market requirements.
The Minister has described the transition as ‘one of the most significant reforms in South Africa's post-school education and training landscape’ – giving effect to a June 2024 ministerial directive.
Among other things, the yet-to-be-published arrangements are expected to:
- ‘accelerate the development and implementation of occupational qualifications’
- ‘improve alignment between education, training and labour market needs’
- ‘reinforce accountability among SETAs, quality councils and other implementing bodies’, and
- ‘strengthen the responsiveness, quality and credibility of qualifications within the post-school education and training system’.
Please click the links below for more information:
Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch
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