BUSINESS AND TRAINING
47
The development of quality
industry-owned training
Achieving excellence in the design and implementation of
nationally recognised qualifications.
By Sam Dubazana
WHAT IS A TRAINING PACKAGE?
Training packages are a key feature of the
Quality Council for Trades and Occupations
(QCTO) in South Africa. They form part of
the national training framework, namely the
National Qualification Framework (NQF), which
aims to make skills development and training
arrangements simple, flexible, and relevant to the
needs of industry.
DEVELOPED BY INDUSTRY FOR INDUSTRY
The QCTO covers different plumbing training modules
and unit standards in the NQF for the industry.
Extensive consultation occurs during development
to ensure that the training package is relevant to the
industry, and useable.
ENCOURAGING TRAINING AT WORK
Training may occur at the workplace, off the job, at a
training organisation, during regular work, or through
work experience, work placement, or work simulation.
Usually it involves a combination of these methods,
depending on what suits the learner, the type of
learning, and the particular occupational outcome.
MANY PATHWAYS TO COMPETENCY
South Africa can achieve occupational competency in
many ways. Training packages acknowledge this by
emphasising (through units of competency) what the
learner can do — not how or where they learnt to
do it. For example, some experienced workers might
be able to demonstrate competency against the
unit standards or modules and gain a qualification
without completing a formal training course. This is
a process called Skills Recognition or Recognition
of Prior Learning. Other people who are just setting
out on a new career may undertake training in a
classroom setting and others may gain competency
through new apprenticeships supported by on-the-
job training and assessment.
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
THREE ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS
The endorsed component of a training package
consists of three parts:
• Competency standards
Provide an industry-endorsed benchmark for
training and assessment. They specify the scope of
knowledge and skills to be covered in training. They
enable enterprises to accurately define particular
roles within industry, and are a useful guide when
designing job classifications, workplace appraisal, and
skills development. They are the basis for designing
occupational education and training courses and
assessment approaches for delivery off the job by
registered training providers.
• National qualification
This is awarded when a learner (who might be
an employee) has been assessed as achieving a
combination of units of competency that provides a
meaningful outcome at an industry or enterprise level.
Each qualification consists of several core and/or elective
units of competency that industry representatives require
of workers to perform a particular job.
• Assessment guidelines
This provides a framework for accurate, reliable,
and valid assessment of the applicable competency
standards. They ensure that all assessments are
thorough, consistent, and valid, and they also
provide important quality assurance in the issuing
of qualifications. They include a statement on the
qualifications required by assessors, guidelines for
designing assessment materials, and guidelines for
conducting assessment. PA
Sam Dubazana
Sam Dubazana is the
director at The Plumbing
Academy, a CETA-
accredited training institute
founded in 2003. The
academy has successfully
piped its way into the
plumbing industry through
integrity, strong values, and
maintaining strict plumbing
standards both in the
classroom and on site.
South Africa can achieve
occupation competency in
many ways.
February 2018 Volume 23 I Number 12