Executive

This article presents a descriptive account of the national approach to career development that is being introduced in South Africa through the establishment of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and Career Advice Service by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and the Department of Higher Education and Training. The article attempts to reflect on the approach followed by arguing for the recognition of the underlying career development theory and also by inviting constructive engagement from both the South African and international career development community. By recognising the emerging (also referred to as qualitative) approach to career counselling that is gaining favour in the international context, the article explores the influences on this emerging South African career counselling model. In particular, consideration is given to the important influence on the model through learnings from a career counselling centre established in the 1970s during the apartheid era, similar developments in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, as well as the findings of a comprehensive review of the career counselling landscape commissioned by SAQA in 2009 (Flederman 2009). The unique association of the national approach to career counselling with the South African NQF is put forward as a distinguishing factor with significant potential that needs to be further exploited. If guidance services are to have the desired impact there needs to be a major paradigm shift in the way they are viewed and delivered in South Africa. The heritage of career guidance and counselling services in South Africa is one in which the field was dominated by psychologists, emphasised psychometric testing and assessment, and a 'one to one' relationship between client and guidance staff. This focus is not uncommon in many developing countries. This focus was narrowed even further by the emphasis on delivery of services [to] the white citizens in South Africa (World Bank Report on Career Development in South Africa, Kay and Fretwell 2003, 54).

"Together with National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) in England, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand and Australia, the South African NQF is part of a somewhat elite, even notorious, and often criticised group of first generation NQFs that were established between the late 1980s and early 1990s. These NQFs were rooted in the thinking on competency, lifelong learning and outcomes-based education that prevailed in the United Kingdom at the time (Young, 2005). In the subsequent period up to 2005, more than 30 additional countries have embarked on NQF development, while three regional qualification framework initiatives are also currently underway, one in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), another in the European Union (EU), and yet another amongst English-speaking Caribbean countries (Tuck et al., 2005). Backgrounded by this continued drive for NQF development across the world, I use this paper to reflect critically on the extent to which the development and implementation of the South African NQF has impacted on the regulation of teacher education. In particular I discuss the extent to which:

• provisioning of teacher education has been quality assured through NQF sub-systems;
• teacher qualifications and standards have been developed and realigned to NQF requirements to accommodate, amongst others, un- and under-qualified teachers; and
• professional development points for teachers are being introduced to complement the NQF credit system (Department of Education, 2005).

The paper is concluded with specific observations that may be of value to other countries that are using, or plan to use, NQFs to regulate and improve teacher education. "

"This article reflects on the reliability of the evidence contained in the National Qualifications Framework Impact Study, a longitudinal comparative study conducted by the South African
Qualifications Authority since 2002. In so doing, the veracity of evidence-based research in determining the impact of the South African Qualifications Framework on the transformation of education and training is considered critically."

The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) has completed two cycles of a longitudinal comparative study that aims to measure the impact of the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) on the transformation of education and training. Cycle 1, completed in 2004, focused mainly on the development of the research design and included a pilot study. Cycle 2 was completed in 2005 and included the establishment of baseline date against which the progress of the NQF can be measured . Cycle 3 will commence in the second half of 2006. Once completed, the Cycle 3 results will be compared with the baseline data from Cycle 2 in order to make the first comparative judgement of the impact of the NQF. In this paper I briefly summarise the results of the first two cycles and present the planned execution of Cycle 3. More importantly though, I consider the role of such an in-house research survey and the danger of it being perceived as propaganda, or even legitimisation of organisational policy decisions. In conclusion I propose a number of suggestions on how best such concerns will be addressed in Cycle 3 of the NQF Impact Study.

"Is the National Qualifications Framework promise a broken promise?
Educational change is often driven by grand ideas. What attracts policy-makers and practitioners in these ideas is a promise for improved education and thereby better results. One of these educational change ideas today is national qualifications framework to bring more internal harmony within and international coherence between education systems. As any other grand educational change idea, emergence of national qualifications frameworks is taking place with promises and doubts. In this Big Change Question Vincent McBride and James Keevy, through both their personal practice and research, debate whether National Qualifications Frameworks have been a broken promise or an opportunity to help education systems to change. This article has two primary statements from the two authors followed by a short commentary from both."

In March 2006 Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers of Higher Education, at their meeting in Kasane, Botswana, mandated the SADC Technical Committee on Accreditation and Certification to assist Member States to ‘establish and develop their national quality assurance systems within one year, as a first step towards the establishment of national qualifications frameworks and a SADC [regional] qualifications framework’ (SADC, 2006). Working on the development of the SADC regional qualifications framework since 1997, the Technical Committee recognised that this decision was an important step towards the establishment of the regional framework. In this paper, and in my capacities as both member of the SADC Technical Committee, and researcher at the South African Qualifications Authority, I present an overview of some of the key developments that have led to the March 2006 Ministerial decision. In particular, I critically consider the extent to which the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) has emerged as the main driver for developing qualifications frameworks in the SADC region.

The South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is an integrated framework. All levels (from basic to higher education), sectors (such as schooling, both public and private) and types of qualifications (such as academic, vocational and professional) are integrated into a single national system. This strong integrative approach was initially proposed to replace the fragmented system with a coherent structure that would bridge divisions between sectors of learning, most notably the entrenched differences in parity of esteem between general education and vocational education and training. Despite these noble intentions, the extremely unified Scope of the South African NQF has remained a major point of contention. One example of the problems faced as a result of the unified Scope of the NQF has been the classification of qualifications into 23 different types or categories - one such type being ‘professional qualifications’. In 2006, faced with increasing pressure from professional bodies to review the status of these professional qualifications, SAQA initiated research to investigate the 426 qualifications currently categorised as ‘professional’ on the NQF (SAQA, 2006). As part of the research project the researcher was required to make a recommendation on the inclusion or exclusion of these 426 qualifications on the NQF. In this paper I briefly present the findings of the empirical research on the inclusion of professional qualifications on the NQF and then ask what the implications of the research recommendations are for work-integrated learning in South Africa.

"What does it mean to recognise the qualifications of a teacher awarded in the United Kingdom when the teacher
migrates to Canada, from Barbados to New Zealand, or from South Africa to the Cameroon? As increasing numbers of
teachers migrate between countries in the Commonwealth, often in search of greener pastures, but more recently with the global
economic downturn, also returning to their countries of origin, a deeper understanding of the qualifications and requirements
which give these teachers the right to practice has become essential. This article draws on the findings of a recent research
initiative on teacher qualification in the Commonwealth undertaken by the South African Qualifications Authority in collaboration
with the Commonwealth Secretariat. The study is located within the broader context of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment
Protocol. This article draws on the findings of a recent research initiative on teacher qualification in the Commonwealth undertaken by the South African Qualifications Authority in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat. The study is located within the broader context of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol."

The recent review of the impact of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol (CTRP) by Ochs and Jackson (2009) has pointed out that the active international recruitment of teachers
is a global issue that is not limited to Commonwealth countries. The review also found that, despite the recognition of the protocol, particularly at the ‘highest international level’, the majority
of Commonwealth teachers remain uninformed and, as a result, are open to exploitation and
unfair labour practices. This paper draws on the literature identifying the challenges and lessons in
implementing the CTRP to initiate and explore the important debate on the development of a
continental teacher mobility protocol for Africa. Taking note that the development of a recruitment protocol for Africa has recently been initiated by the African Union (Kaluba, 2010), this paper argues for the consideration of key issues to ensure that the recruitment protocol is uniquely African and addresses the unique challenges of the recruitment of teachers in Africa.
The key issues include consideration of: the African identity, which is constituted by both geographical and cultural criteria, as well as rethinking the indigenised African situation beyond
the confines of Eurocentric concepts and categories (Higgs and Keevy, 2009); moving from ‘policy borrowing’ to ‘policy learning’ as the mobility protocol is developed (Chakroun, 2010); gathering
accurate data on teacher recruitment in Africa to inform the mobility protocol; recognising qualifications through qualifications frameworks in Africa (Samuels and Keevy, 2008); and increasing the professionalisation of teachers in Africa (Ochs, 2011).

Today there is an accelerating trend towards qualifications frameworks as an instrument to develop, classify and recognise formal learning across the African continent, as is also the case across most of Europe, Australasia and the Asia-Pacific region. As more and more countries and regions across the world develop qualifications frameworks to improve harmonisation of education and training systems and comparability of qualifications,
it is becoming increasingly evident that Africa has not remained unaffected. At present more than twenty African countries are actively engaged in qualifications framework development, including all Southern African Development Community member states and the SADC region as a whole, not to mention exploratory discussions in other regions and talk of a continent-wide ‘African Qualifications Framework’. Starting from an exploration of the apparent Western and Eurocentric origins of qualifications frameworks, and a realisation that education in Africa was influenced by Western and European ideas long before the advent of qualifications frameworks, we consider the extent to which qualifications frameworks influence the way education and training is organised in the African context. As we critically reflect on the seemingly unquestioned, largely uncritical, and nearly always unopposed move towards qualifications frameworks in Africa, we consider whether qualifications frameworks
are able to embrace the distinctive tenets of the African context that can, as described by Catherine Odora Hoppers (2008, 24), make it possible to ‘place and name’ the collective experiences and abilities that African people bring to the field.

In the first two sections of this paper, we briefly discuss the research design of the NQF Impact Study and then present the key findings as contained in the two reports. In the final section, we stand back and consider how, in the light of the findings of the NQF Impact Study, the NQF has impacted on how we think and practice equality, democracy, and quality in South Africa.

This report is a summary of an exploratory investigation into the use of credit accumulation and transfer (CAT) systems in the international context. SAQA has undertaken this research to
compare the NQF in South Africa with NQFs in other countries. This report is a contribution to the ongoing debate on different forms of NQFs.

This paper has been prepared for the International Symposium on National Qualifications Frameworks hosted jointly in September 2011 in South Africa, by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The main purpose of the symposium is to contribute to the intellectual project that forms the basis for national qualifications framework (nqf) development in general, as well as for the development of nqfs in Southern and South Africa in particular. The paper focuses on different and evolving understandings of nqfs since first introduced in the late 1980s and the present, drawing in particular on the experiences of SAQA in overseeing the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) since 1998.

This paper attempts to articulate some of the current thinking around conceptualisation of the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF). It puts forward the idea of the South African NQF as a relational principle – an organizational principle facilitating relational thinking about the education and training system as a whole, and how its constituent parts relate to each other and to development and the world of work. The paper draws on Engestrom’s (1987) idea of an activity system where the NQF is described as a complex system constituted by a number of other, linked activity systems. The NQF incorporates but is far from being limited to being, a register of qualifications. Its goals are to: (1) create an integrated national framework for learning achievements; (2) facilitate access to and articulation and progression within education, training, and career paths; (3) enhance quality in the system; and (4) facilitate redress of past unfair discrimination – all of which have the higher aims of lifelong learning, and personal and economic development in the country. While these objectives have remained constant, the form of the South African NQF has shifted over time. The paper sketches some of the understandings of the South African NQF articulated over the 15 years of its existence – conceptualizations which may be analytically distinct but inter-relate in practice. The article draws on the concepts of pedagogic device (Bernstein 1996), socio-material (Fenwick 2010), and what has been termed ‘third generation cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT)’ (Hardman 2008; Olvitt 2010) to assist development of analytical categories for measuring the impact of the NQF, or, how South Africa is doing in relation to achieving NQF objectives.

This brief reflective paper has been prepared as input for the UNESCO World Report on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) 2012. The paper is based on research that was conducted between 2009 and 2010 by the European Training Foundation that focused on the development of regional
qualifications frameworks in Southern Africa, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and the Commonwealth (Keevy, Chakroun and Deij 2010). Drawing on these findings and updated information from more recent developments, the paper suggests that
regional qualifications frameworks are making an important contribution to the recognition of cross-border qualifications mainly through the introduction of outcome-based learning methodologies within the broader context of multilateral
recognition agreements. Importantly, the paper argues that regional qualifications frameworks should not be seen in isolation, but rather in relation to an array of existing recognition methodologies, including regional conventions, as well as
other multilateral recognition agreements. It is proposed that the referencing of national qualifications frameworks to a regional qualifications framework constitutes an important mechanism through which cross-border transparency, currency and portability of qualifications can be facilitated, that is, if the process is not limited to a technical exercise. The understanding of regional qualifications frameworks as “meta-frameworks” is also supported as a pragmatic mechanism to achieve regional objectives. The paper concludes by challenging those involved in improving the transparency and recognition of qualifications, including the TVET
sector, to make evidence-based decisions on the further development and implementation of both national and regional qualifications frameworks.

Modern society attributes great value to qualifications as agreed and trusted proxy for the competencies and skills of individuals (Keating 2008). The global spread of national, regional and transnational qualifications frameworks to organise qualifications in a manner that increases transparency and international comparability bears testimony to this fact, as does the prominent role of credential evaluation agencies in societies to translate foreign credentials into locally accepted currency.  To date the relationship between credential evaluation and qualifications frameworks remains largely unexplored (NQAI 2010) and confronted by a range of criticisms: it is argued that qualifications remain at best, only limited proxies for competencies and skills; qualifications frameworks are criticized for not delivering on the promises of increased comparability and transparency; and credential evaluation methodologies are criticized for being  opaque and outdated, susceptible to political influences. This paper elaborates on some of these aspects as it attempts to show the benefits of a closer relationship between credential evaluation and qualifications frameworks. In particular the paper draws on the South African experiences of qualifications framework development since the 1980s, and the establishment of a credential evaluation function that started in the 1950s. Based on these experiences, and considering also the related international developments, the paper concludes with suggestions for positioning credential evaluation practices in the context of qualifications frameworks.

Across the world, over 120 countries  are now at some stage of introducing a national qualifications framework. These countries are to be found in all regions of the world, and range from the most industrially and economically developed in Europe to fast developing countries in Asia and developing countries in Africa and Latin America. Increasingly, these national initiatives are being overtaken by cross-border attempts to recognise qualifications, notably the introduction of regional qualifications framework in Europe, the Caribbean and Southern Africa, a transnational qualifications framework in the Commonwealth, and various sector-specific initiatives such as in the hospitality sector in South East Asia, or the marketing sector in Europe.
The international dimension of qualification frameworks has not been, to date, investigated in a comprehensive and comparative manner beyond the regions and countries wherein developments are taking place. Given that qualification frameworks are such recent phenomena, it is not possible to draw definitive conclusions about their design and impact. However, they appear to be significant initiatives that are embedded in wider regional and global political and economic integration processes. Qualification frameworks that are being developed across countries and regions highlight, among other, a gradual shift from bilateral recognition of qualifications to multilateral recognition (ILO 2007) and are considered also to have a “push” dimension for developing NQFs.
To support the international debate on qualifications systems the European Training Foundation has conducted this study on international experiences using and/or developing transnational qualification frameworks across regions and countries. In the study “transnational qualifications framework” is used as an overarching term to describe the various forms wherein cross-border recognition of qualifications is taking place through qualification frameworks. The specific purposes of the study are twofold: firstly, to explore the potential influence of regional qualification frameworks on the recognition of qualifications nationally and internationally; and secondly, to consider the wider interplay between national and transnational qualification frameworks.