The Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) has become the new accreditation body for skills programmes across all industries and sectors in South Africa, including first aid and other health and safety related courses. Previously, first aid training accreditation was controlled by the Health and Welfare Sector Educational Training Authority (HWSETA). In this blog, we’ll explain how the move to QCTO accreditation will affect first aid training, how the new skills programmes differ from the previous certifications, and what this means for health and safety compliance within your business.
SAQA, the QCTO, and the HWSETA all play important roles in first aid training accreditation:
SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority)
SAQA is the overarching authority that oversees the implementation of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The NQF is South Africa’s official, standardised system for classifying and registering all education and training, from general schooling and vocational certificates through to degrees and doctorates. One of SAQA’s most important roles is ensuring that all skills programmes are registered on the NQF.
QCTO (Quality Council for Trades and Occupations)
The QCTO’s role is to develop and accredit occupational skills programmes. The QCTO is also responsible for accrediting the training providers delivering these skills programmes. Once a skills programme has been accredited by the QCTO, it is submitted to SAQA to be registered on the NQF.
HWSETA (Health and Welfare Sector Education Training Authority)
Previously the body responsible for accrediting health and safety courses and training providers, the HWSETA now assists the QCTO by helping to develop the new course curriculums and inspecting the facilities of training providers seeking QCTO accreditation.
Yes. The QCTO is in the process of doing away with legacy courses across all sectors and industries and replacing them with newly developed skills programmes. Each new skills programme (in this case, each first aid course) carries a particular number of credits (indicating the required number of learning hours) and is pegged to a particular NQF level. While there are many commonalities between the legacy courses and the new skills programmes, there are some notable differences.
In assisting the QCTO to develop new first aid course curriculums, the HWSETA invited a group of industry role players, subject matter experts, and private training providers who, along with a specialist course developer, developed the three first aid skills programmes over a six-to-nine-month period. These new skills programmes are called Basic Emergency First Aid Responder, Intermediate Emergency First Aid Responder, and Advanced Emergency First Aid Responder.These first aid courses were then submitted by the HWSETA to the QCTO, who made additional adjustments before putting the courses out for comment. Ultimately, the new first aid skills programmes were finalised and are now published on the QCTO website and are available for delivery.
Delegates will be continually assessed during the course, including written theory and hands-on practical assessments. In addition, delegates will complete a Final Integrated Supervised Assessment (FISA). This is a final practical assessment that is approved by the QCTO. An invigilator is also required to be present during the FISA.
Training providers are required to follow a thorough and lengthy quality assurance process when applying to the QCTO for accreditation. The QCTO assesses training providers based on a wide range of criteria, including:
Training providers are required to submit their course content and FISA assessments for each skills programme they wish to present. These course materials must align with the new exit level outcomes and internal requirements of the skills programme to confirm that training materials meet the curriculum requirements.
Successful training providers will receive an approval accreditation letter from the QCTO endorsing them to present selected skills programmes.
Here’s a high-level overview of the new first aid skills programmes developed by the QCTO:
Basic Emergency First Aid Responder
NQF Level: 2
Credits: 2
Course duration: 2 days
Course content includes:
Intermediate Emergency First Aid Responder
NQF Level: 3
Credits: 5
Course duration: 4 days
Course content includes:
Advanced Emergency First Aid Responder
NQF Level: 4
Credits: 6
Course duration: 5 days
Course content includes:
Yes, businesses should note that there will be a new QCTO fee of R150 (ex VAT) per attending delegate that will be added to the cost of attending all new skills programme courses.
The bottom line is that going forward, business owners need to make sure that they select a training provider who is accredited by the QCTO. Note that at the time of writing, first aid courses are the only health and safety related skills programmes currently released by QCTO. Training providers will only be able to offer other health and safety courses as they are developed and released by the QCTO.
Yes, Absolute Health Services is accredited by the QCTO and the Department of Employment and Labour (DoEL). In addition, our Managing Director, Alastair Farish, was on the panel of subject matter experts invited to develop the new first aid and health and safety skills programmes.
Note that at the time of writing, we are in the process of launching our new first aid skills programmes. These programmes have recently been released by the QCTO and health and safety accredited training providers across the country are in the process of switching over to new QCTO courses as they are released.
Contact us for more information or to book your first aid training.
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