EVALUATION OF FOREIGN QUALIFICATIONS SOUTH AFRICA

Foreign nationals that seek to study or work in South Africa, have to go through the evaluation of foreign qualifications process. It is of necessity that they apply for the evaluation of foreign qualifications through the South African Qualification Authority, in order for their qualifications to be evaluated or rather verified. SAQA researches and ensures that the provided documents were issued by an institution that is accredited or recognized by the authority of the individual’s country. It also validates if the documents were issued by the institution whom they are claimed to have been issued by and whether the foreign country recognizes the qualification as part of the national qualification system.

Reasons for evaluation of foreign qualifications

The reason behind the evaluation of foreign qualifications is to acknowledge the academic documents in terms of the South African National Qualification Framework (NQF). Professional organisations may require an individuals to get an evaluation of foreign qualifications, prior the approval of practicing their profession in South Africa. For instance, doctors who comes from foreign countries, will have to go through the evaluation of foreign qualifications process, that’s conducted by SAQA, before they can be allowed to practice medicine in South Africa. The main purpose of SAQA’s evaluation of foreign qualifications, is to discover the level of the National Qualification Framework at which the foreign qualifications must be recognized.

SAQA’s two-phased evaluation of foreign qualifications process

1. The foreign national has to verify the by making sure that:

• The institutions that issued the qualifications are accredited by the national qualification system of the foreign country.
• The qualifications are legally issued by the institutions they are claimed to have been issued by, and that they are part of the national qualification system of that particular foreign country.
• The qualifications are in order and their awards are authentic.

2. The foreign qualification will then be compared with the South African qualifications, taking considerations into the structure and outcomes of the foreign qualifications, to locate them within the South African NQF.

The South African Qualification Authority

The South African Qualification Authority is the general administrator of the South African National Qualification Framework and the overseer of its values, quality, and nature. The role of SAQA, as it has been set out in the NQF Act, which is to promote the aims of the NQF, to administer further development and the execution of the NQF, and to interrelate the sub framework. Some of the functions of SAQA is to register qualifications and part-qualifications on the NQF, It also undertake research and collaborate with international counterparts. The South African Qualification Authority, oversees NQF implementations and collaborate with the Quality Councils.

The history behind the NQF.

The NQF traces its history back to the labor movement years in the early 1970s. It was during those years that the employers constantly rejected the demands for a living wage made by the black trade union. The demands were rejected with reasons that they were unjustified, as the workers were unskilled. The rejections brought forth a great turn over, as the black workers then saw training as a gateway to achieving their demands for better wages. Dating back to the mid-1970s, there was a demand of change in the education system, which led to a heap of protests, the likes of the 1976 Soweto student uprising took place. Years passed and the struggle to persuade employers into agreeing to the workers’ demands continued throughout the 1980s and the 1990s.

Different unions and departments were established and joined forces in relation to fight illiteracy and blacks’ oppression. It was during the 1992, that a meeting that was held by the Department of Manpower and the trade union federation, formed a representative task team, which established 8 working groups that were entrusted to develop a new national training strategy. The working groups were represented by people from the trade unions, workers, providers of education and training, the state, the democratic alliance and the ANC Education Department. An agreement on a new integrated framework was reached.

It was in 1994 that the foundation was laid for the SAQA Act, ANC Policy Framework for Education and Training, and CEPD Implementation Plan for Education and Development. Then followed the white papers on Education and Training and on Reconstruction and Development, of which they both emphasized the need for the application and the development of the NQF. The Inter-Ministerial Working Group drafted the NQF Bill, which was passed into law as the South Africa Qualifications Authority Act.no 58 of 1995. The law was later replaced by the National Qualifications Framework Act.no 67 of 2008. The new Act aims to strengthen the NQF, to ensure different sections of the education and training system.

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