The Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) is a Quality Council established in 2010 in terms of the Skills Development Act. It is one of three Quality Councils in SA, each responsible for a part of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF):

• UMALUSI, the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training (SA schools),
• Council on Higher Education South Africa (CHE), and
• Quality Council for Trades & Occupations (QCTO),

Its role is to oversee the design, implementation, assessment, quality assurance and certification of occupational qualifications.

Another important role for the QCTO is to offer guidance to service providers who must be accredited by the QCTO to offer occupational qualifications in order to fulfil the needs of their clients.

What is the Change?

The launch of the QCTO follows the global trend away from a sectoral approach to an occupationally based approach to learning. We shall have one quality body (the QCTO), instead of 25 bodies (the various SETAS), thus creating efficiencies in the industry.

The primary changes are as follows in terms of the old and the new realities as described above:

• All training will be centred around occupations and trades, with no more training programmes around generic topics like Business Administration, Leadership and Management.
• Training Providers will have to be accredited by the QCTO to deliver accredited learning solutions, based on occupational curricula.
• On receiving the Statement of Results from the training provider, a learner applies to do the QCTO’s External Integrative Summative Assessment (EISA) for that particular qualification.
• On successful completion of the EISA, the QCTO will confer the qualification on the learner.

How does this impact companies and their B-BBEE Skills Development Expenditure Needs?

This change brings about a massive transformation in how we view skills development and how companies will be implementing it.

Skills College has positioned itself to maximise the opportunities for our clients created by these changes. Are you geared to embark on this journey?

Contact us via the channels provided in this email to assist you with adopting these changes to your advantage.