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Understanding the Acts |
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| (A). Skills Development Act and Skills Development Levy Act |
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| The Government’s commitment to promote active labour market
policies is well documented in the Skills Development Act, 1998 and
the Skills Development Levy Act , 1999. These two pieces of
legislation introduce new institutions, programmes and funding
policies designed to increase investment in skills development. |
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There are two over-riding priorities that this legislation seeks
to address. |
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The first is the ever-present reality of the global economy and
the imperative to increase skills to improve productivity and the
competitiveness of industry, business, commerce and services. |
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The second is to address the challenges of social development and
the eradication of poverty. |
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The implementation of the skills development legislation has
begun. In April 1999 the National Skills Authority was established.
On 20 March 2000, 25 Sector Education and Training Authorities came
into being. From 1 April 2000 a payroll levy was introduced to fund
the new skills development implementation framework and to provide
grants to encourage employers to invest in training and the
development of their staff. |
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For more information on Skills Development Act and Skills
Development Levy Act, log on to
www.labour.gov.za/docs/legislation/skills/. |
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(B). The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) |
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The South African Qualifications Authority is a body of 29
members appointed by Ministers of Education and Labour. The members
are nominated by the stakeholders in Education and Training. |
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The functions of the Authority are two-fold: |
- To oversee the development of the National Qualifications
Framework (NQF), by formulating and publishing policies and criteria
for the registration of bodies responsible for establishing
education and training standards or qualifications and for the
accreditation of bodies responsible for monitoring and auditing
achievements in terms of such standards and qualifications.
- To oversee the implementation of the NQF by ensuring the
registration, accreditation and assignment of functions to the
bodies referred to above, as well as the registration of national
standards and qualifications on the framework. It must also take
steps to ensure that provisions for accreditation are complied with
and where applicable, that registered standards and qualifications
are internationally comparable.
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For more information on SAQA, log on to
www.saqa.org.za
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