CERTIFICATION POLICY
Table of contents 1. Background... 3 1.2 Definitions... 3 1.3 Application and Scope... 5 2. Statement of Policy Intent... 6 3. General requirement... 7 4. Issue of certificates... 7 5. Quality assurance for the issue of certificates... 8 6. Fraud prevention measures and control... 8 7. Certification procedure for Learner certificates... 9 7.1 Recognition of Learner Achievements:... 9 8. Printing of certificates... 10 9. Certification of Accredited Providers:... 10 10. Conditions for not issuing a certificate... 11 11. Duplicate certificates (lost or stolen)... 12 12. Appeals... 12 13. Evaluation, Review and Improvement... 12
1. Background 1.1 Legal / Regulatory and Policy Reference Sub regulation 9(1) of the Education and Training Quality Assurance Bodies Regulations, 1998 (No. R 1127 of 1998) (ETQA Regulations), promulgated under section 14 of the South African Qualifications Authority Act (Act No. 58 of 1995) requires ETQA`s to inter alia: Accredit constituent providers for specific standards or qualifications registered on the NQF; Register constituent assessors and moderators for specific registered standards or qualifications in terms of the criteria established for this purpose; Take responsibility for the certification of constituent learners; Take responsibility for the certification of learner achievements. Maintain a data-base acceptable to the Authority; Submit reports in accordance with the requirements of the Authority; Summary of legal and policy reference documents Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act No 108 of 1996) Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (Act No. 3 of 2000) South African Qualifications Authority Act (Act No. 58 of 1995) Education and Training Quality Assurance Bodies Regulations (No. R 1127 of 1998) SAQA 2001 Quality Management Systems for Education and Training Providers http://www.saqa.org.za/>documents>criteria and Guidelines>All Documents SAQA 2001 Criteria and Guidelines for Providers http://www.saqa.org.za/>documents>criteria and Guidelines>All Documents SAQA 2002. Criteria and Guidelines for the Registration of Assessors http://www.saqa.org.za/>documents>criteria and Guidelines>All Documents 1.2 Definitions The legislative terms used in this policy document are as defined in the SAQA Policy documents on Criteria and Guidelines for ETQAs, 2001, Criteria and Guidelines for the Registration of Assessors and have been used without alteration to avoid differentiation in meaning and context in which they are used.
Achievement refers to the recognition granted to a learner when all required learning outcomes have been successfully demonstrated; Accreditation means the certification, usually for a particular period of time, of a person, a body or an institution as having the capacity to fulfill a particular function in the quality assurance system set up by the South African Qualifications Authority in terms of the Act; Assessment means the process of collecting evidence of learners work to measure and make judgments about the achievement or non-achievement of specified National Qualifications Framework standards and/or qualifications Assessor means the person who is registered by the relevant Education and Training Quality Assurance Body in accordance with criteria established for this purpose by a Standards Generating Body to measure the achievement of specified National Qualifications Framework standards or qualifications, and constituent assessor has a corresponding meaning; Learner means an individual who is participating in a learning programme with the purpose of achieving credits for standards and /or qualifications; Learning Programme refers to a structured set of learning offerings and related assessment and attainment requirements; Moderation means the process which ensures that assessment of the outcomes described in National Qualifications Framework standards or qualifications, is fair, valid and reliable; Monitoring is a continuous process of review of quality that can be conducted internally and/or externally to recommend quality improvements; Outcomes refer to the contextually demonstrated end-products of the learning process; National Learners Records Database refers to an electronic information system that assists the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) to manage the National Qualifications Framework;
Primary focus means that activity or objective within the sector upon which an organization or body concentrates its efforts; Provider means a body which delivers learning programmes which culminate in specified National Qualifications Framework standards or qualifications, and manages the assessment thereof; Qualification means the formal recognition of the achievement of the required number and range of credits and other requirements at specific levels of the NQF determined by the relevant bodies registered by SAQA; Quality assurance means the process of ensuring that the degree of excellence specified is achieved; Registration means the process which ensures that the person who assesses learner competence has the requisite criteria recommended by SGBs for specified NQF registered standards and/or qualifications; Registered Constituent Assessor means an assessor who has met the requirements for registration as an assessor of specified NQF qualifications and/ or unit standards and has been registered by the ETQA under whose primary focus the standards and qualifications fall; Unit Standard refers to registered statement of desired education and training outcomes and its associated assessment criteria together with administrative and other information as specified in the regulations; Verification means the process managed by an ETQA for externally verifying (checking) moderation processes and confirming or overturning moderation findings. 1.3 Application and Scope The certification policy and procedure apply to all accredited constituent training providers, constituent assessors, constituent moderators and learners seeking recognition for the achievement of a National Qualification as registered on the National Qualifications Framework.
1.4 Relationship to other ETQA policies Accreditation Policy Assessor and Moderator Registration Policy Assessment and Verification Policy Monitoring and Auditing Policy 1.5 Accountability and Responsibility The ETQA staff and or its representatives are responsible and accountable for managing and overseeing the implementation, maintenance, review and improvement of the BANKSETA certification policy and procedures. 2. Statement of Policy Intent 2.1 Purpose and content The purpose of this policy is to: Ensure that BANKSETA certification policy and procedures is developed and in compliance to the certification of accredited constituent training providers, constituent assessors and moderators and learners who have achieved competence against the Qualifications and/or Unit Standards falling within the primary focus of the BANKSETA. Ensure credibility of certificates by developing fraud prevention measures and controls issued by the BANKSETA or any accredited training provider designated in the terms and conditions of accreditation to deliver learning programmes falling within the primary focus of the BANKSETA. Ensure that certificates are issued after the validation and verification process has been conducted to ascertain the achievement of the quality assurance requirements. The certification policy is therefore built on the basic tenets of quality assurance: Accreditation of constituent providers Registration of constituent assessors and moderators Approval of Learning programmes for quality provisioning
Monitoring and Auditing of constituent providers Monitoring, Auditing and Verification of assessments and moderations Quality assurance of learner achievements 3. General requirement The BANKSETA ETQA shall certify a constituent provider, constituent assessor and constituent moderator and issue the means for a certificate to be generated in accordance with the terms and conditions of accreditation of an ETQA in the SAQA ETQA Regulations and SAQA document for the Certification of Learners by Accredited ETQA Bodies and the Policy for Acceptable Usage of SAQA Trademarks by Stakeholders. The BANKSETA ETQA shall certify a learner and delegate the issuing of a certificate to the accredited training provider, in accordance with the terms and conditions of accreditation of an ETQA in the SAQA ETQA Regulations and SAQA document for the Certification of Learners by Accredited ETQA Bodies and the Policy for Acceptable Usage of SAQA Trademarks by Stakeholders. 4. Issue of certificates All certificates (in PDF format only) shall be issued with the following information for recognition of learner achievement: Learner s full name(s) and Surname Learner s Identification Number Title, SAQA ID number and NQF level of the Skills Programme / Unit Standard / qualification achieved Date of issue of certificate Unique Certificate serial number NLRD number BANKSETA Name and Logo SAQA Name and Logo Signature of Provider Representative Signature of ETQA Manager
5. Quality assurance for the issue of certificates The issue of a learner certificate shall include the following quality assurance measures: Accurate capturing of information data in the BANKSETA ETQA data-base with links to the NLRD Monitoring during the annual provider audit of the accuracy of the electronic information captured on individual learner records for uploading on the NLRD On-Site verifications of moderated assessments and providing support on problem areas Confirmation of the details on the certificate by the accredited training provider s administrative personnel before issue (as monitored during on-site verifications and as per signed undertaking) The BANKSETA ETQA shall ensure the integrity of the data by limiting the access to the BANKSETA ETQA SMS data-base and uploading thereof of learner information to BANKSETA SMS and to ETQA personnel who are designated to work on the BANKSETA ETQA SMS data-base linked to the NLRD system. Passwords will be issued to all individuals designated to access information on the BANKSETA ETQA data-base. Accredited training providers will be required to sign a letter of undertaking to ensure the quality assurance of the issuing of learner certificates. Only those accredited training providers who have signed a letter of undertaking will be issued with certificate mask templates and zip files containing learner verification data. 6. Fraud prevention measures and control The BANKSETA ETQA shall ensure the integrity, security and control to prevent the issue of fraudulent certificates by putting in place the following security measures and controls: All certificates shall be printed in accordance with the recommendations, conditions and specifications of the SAQA document on Certification of Learners by Accredited ETQA Bodies and the Policy on Acceptable Usage of SAQA Trademarks by Stakeholders. The training provider will also sign a letter of undertaking and send the signed copy to BANKSETA to be recorded on the BANKSETA system. The letter states the following: o The Training provider will be responsible for the integrity of the certification process; o Will notify the ETQA of any deviations and non-compliance to the accepted certification process within 48 hours of discovering such;
o o o o o o Ensure that information pertaining to certification is a true reflection of the learners achievements; Nullify any learner achievement(s) in instances of any deviation from and/or noncompliance to the process; Use only certificate masks (PDF) formatted according to the specifications with regard to colour, paper type, certificate size, font(s), learner certificate data, logos, signatures and spacing as provided by the ETQA in line with SAQA requirements; Control the issue of certificate masks according to a standard document management process that includes secured storage, a clear chain of custody system, the normal security principles and matching the number of certificates authorised by the ETQA with those issued; Store the data for a period of not less than five years. The certificates must be stored in a space that has limited access. 7. Certification procedure for Learner certificates The procedure to issue a certificate shall be based on the following information: 7.1 Recognition of Learner Achievements: The Training Provider shall notify the BANKSETA ETQA in writing upon completion of moderated assessments and supply the Learner information details, assessor details and learner achievements; An onsite moderation visit must be conducted by an external moderator appointed by the BANKSETA ETQA. The visit will be in line with the procedures for assessment and moderation. The moderator will view the learner assessments and assessor reports and internal moderation reports. The moderator will then submit a moderation report based on the sample of learner assessments moderated, to the BANKSETA ETQA. If the moderation report has no areas of concern, the training provider will then send a list of the Learners to be approved and validated by the BANKSETA ETQA. The ETQA specialist /ETQA administrator shall receive, acknowledge, capture and verify the Learner achievements against the relevant policies and procedures; The results shall be up-loaded, by BANKSETA personnel onto the BANKSETA SMS database linked to the NLRD system so as to generate the unique NLRD number;
The unique certificate template for each approved learner will be created in an electronic file format which is then saved on the BANKSETA system and forwarded to the Training provider. 8. Printing of certificates All certificates shall be printed by the Training provider and be in the format determined by the BANKSETA and according to the guidelines for the printing of certificates. The guideline for the printing of certificates is as follows: Once the training provider has signed an undertaking to abide by the specifications, they will be issued with a pdf mask template. The training provider will then run the blank mask templates through their own printer in synch with the electronic file, containing details for individual learners. This will not be possible, however, until achievements have been validated by the BANKSETA ETQA because access to automatically-generated certificate numbers will be dependent on the sign-off process. Specifications for the Pre-printed template Please note that no deviations from the specifications will be acceptable. Use ONLY the supplied PDF certificate template to print certificates. The correct size (A4) with crop marks is available for use by all accredited providers. Use certificate standard paper (such as Zeta Matt post Linen Paper) to print the certificates Guidelines for the printing from the template The person accountable in each organisation must print only the required number of certificate masks. A register shall be kept every time a certificate is printed and shall include the following information: Date of Print Name of the person that printed the certificates Number of certificates printed and the serial numbers Number of certificates cancelled and destroyed, and their serial numbers 9. Certification of Accredited Providers:
The BANKSETA ETQA shall receive and acknowledge information from the provider; The ETQA shall verify information against policies and procedures, and after desk top review of the accreditation application, will capture the details of the constituent provider on the database; The ETQA shall conduct a pre-accreditation site visit to validate information contained in the desk top review. The ETQA Manager shall receive the following information for the recognition of the accredited provider in order to authorize and approve the accreditation: A letter for accreditation of a constituent provider specifying the period of accreditation A validation report from the BANKSETA internal Quality Assurer recommending accreditation of the constituent provider; and A development plan, where applicable. The ETQA specialist shall communicate the decision to the accredited constituent provider; The ETQA Manager shall request the generation of the Accreditation certificate and validate it together with the BANKSETA CEO by signing it; The certificate will be forwarded to the accredited provider via registered mail; 10. Conditions for not issuing a certificate Certification shall only be done once the necessary processes have been completed and learner results have been uploaded onto the NLRD system. A certificate shall not be issued if the above procedures and the following conditions have not been met: Requirements for provider accreditation; Timeous communication within 30 days of completion of moderated assessments by the training provider; Preparing a certification or graduation ceremony before the completion of the verification process and formal receipt of communication from the BANKSETA ETQA on the endorsement of Learner Achievements; Flaws in the assessment and moderation processes; or in the assessor and moderator process Inadequate or inconsistent assessments and moderations; Incomplete or inconsistent learner information; Any other irregularities that may be detected during and after the verification process.
11. Duplicate certificates (lost or stolen) As the BANKSETA has delegated the authority to print certificates, learners must apply for a duplicate certificate via the training provider who issued the original certificate. The BANKSETA shall issue duplicate certificate templates (via an updated zip file) only if: The training provider (who must still have a signed, valid undertaking lodged with BANKSETA) submits the request in writing, with a full motivation of why a duplicate certificate should be issued. The learner who is applying for a duplicate includes a signed affidavit to the provider, affirming the reason why a duplicate is being requested, which will be forwarded to BANKSETA. The application may be approved by the ETQA Manager upon receipt of the relevant documentation, merit of the situation and confirmation in writing. 12. Appeals The training provider may appeal to the BANKSETA ETQA against the decision made during external verification process not to award a learner certificate in terms of the BANKSETA ETQA Appeals Policy and Procedure. 13. Evaluation, Review and Improvement The effectiveness of the certification policy and procedures shall be monitored and reviewed annually to identify and implement appropriate amendments aimed at improving the effectiveness, economy and efficiency of said policy and procedures