Country
South Africa
Which bodies have a remit over qualifications and continuing professional development in South Africa, where that remit stops, and what happens to a qualification arriving from outside.
The system in short
Qualifications sit on the National Qualifications Framework, which is set up by statute and divided into three sub-frameworks. Each sub-framework has its own Quality Council: school and further education qualifications, higher education qualifications, and occupational qualifications are quality-assured by three different bodies rather than one. Continuing professional development is not part of that structure at all. It is set by each profession’s own statutory council, which is why an answer about CPD here depends entirely on which profession is being asked about.
Is CPD required
For practitioners registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, continuing professional development is compulsory and tied to remaining on the register. The requirement is a set number of Continuing Education Units each year, and the number depends on the register a practitioner is on rather than being the same for everyone: 30 units a year for a medical practitioner, dentist, physiotherapist or optometrist, 15 for a range of assistant and technician registers, and 10 for laboratory assistants. Of the 30, five must be in ethics, human rights or health law. The Council states that the names of practitioners who are not compliant go to the relevant professional board, which may change the category of registration to supervised practice, require a board examination, or suspend the practitioner from the register until proof of compliance is submitted. Deferment can be applied for, including by practitioners outside the country who are not practising, for a maximum of three years.
The qualifications framework
National Qualifications Framework (NQF)
Established by the National Qualifications Framework Act 67 of 2008, which took effect on 1 November 2008 and replaced the South African Qualifications Authority Act of 1995. The Act describes the framework as the principal instrument through which national education and training qualifications are recognised and quality-assured. It provides for three sub-frameworks, each with its own Quality Council: general and further education and training, quality-assured by Umalusi; higher education, quality-assured by the Council on Higher Education; and occupational qualifications, quality-assured by the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations.
A qualification from outside the country
SAQA Certificate of Evaluation
A qualification awarded outside South Africa is evaluated by SAQA, through its Directorate of Foreign Qualifications Evaluation and Advisory Services. The evaluation verifies that the qualification is authentic and establishes the level of the National Qualifications Framework at which it should be recognised, and it results in a Certificate of Evaluation. An application needs certified copies of the qualification and transcripts, sworn English translations where the documents are in another language, proof of identity and payment. The published turnaround is 30 working days for a normal application, 20 for an urgent one, 10 for a priority one and 48 hours for a special request.
Bodies with a remit
South African Qualifications Authority
Oversees the National Qualifications Framework and registers qualifications on it. Also evaluates qualifications awarded outside South Africa and places them against the framework, issuing a Certificate of Evaluation.
Outside its remit: It does not set continuing professional development requirements for any profession, and an evaluation places a qualification on the framework rather than granting a licence to practise. A profession that requires registration is regulated by its own council.
Health Professions Council of South Africa
Registers health practitioners and runs the continuing professional development programme that registration depends on. The programme is the continuing education and training referred to in section 26 of the Health Professions Act 56 of 1974.
Outside its remit: It covers the professions registered with its own professional boards. Other regulated professions have their own councils, with their own rules, and nothing about the HPCSA scheme carries across to them.
Umalusi, the Council on Higher Education, and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations
Three separate bodies, each developing and managing one sub-framework of the NQF: Umalusi for general and further education and training, the Council on Higher Education for higher education, and the QCTO for trades and occupations.
Outside its remit: Which council covers a qualification depends on the sub-framework it sits in, so the right body to ask about a given certificate is not always obvious from the certificate itself.
Where nothing covers you
Not yet checked
What has been checked here is the health regulator. Engineering, education, accounting, law and the other regulated professions each have their own council with its own continuing professional development rules, and none of those have been read yet. The entry in the comparative table reflects the health professions only.
No check recorded