Cement and Concrete Institute

QUALIFICATIONS
South African qualifications are being formalised and overhauled by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). SAQA is aided by a host of organisations, usually referred to by an alphabet soup of abbreviations. The principal ones will be indicated in this document.

The introduction of new qualifications can be initiated by the Standards Generating Body (SGB) covering that specific section of the industry, or by the industry itself and is thoroughly debated at a workshop called for the purpose. The workshop announcement is circulated to interested and involved people (= stake-holders) who then have the opportunity to become involved. The workshop participants draw up the skills that they feel that a person with the new qualification should have. The qualification is made up from a number of unit standards (see definition below).

Unit standards for a qualification are divided into categories as follows:

Fundamental Unit standards in this group cover numeracy, literacy and communications
Core The core unit standards are those that every person with the qualification must know about and cover general subjects, having a wide coverage.
Electives Elective unit standards are the choices that lead to some form of specialisation. For example, in the supervision of construction, the potential supervisor would be given a choice of roadworks or structures or water and sanitation or . . . . etc.

There are certain rules of combination that must be applied. Fundamentals must make up a certain minimum number of credits, core subjects also a prescribed number of credits and the total for the qualification a certain minimum number of credits. The difference between the total requirement and the fundamental + core is made up by electives.

Each credit equals 10 "notional hours" of study, made up by classroom study, self study, writing the assessment and a portion of the time spent in practice, applying the skills learned. All unit standards have a practical component.

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