Curriculum for eight (8) new national maritime occupational qualifications completed in record time, now for SAQA ratification.
Cape Town: 17 November 2016
The reorganization and further development of South Africa’s maritime sector education and training now formally in its sixth year continues to gain impetus.
This was evidenced by the formal completion of yet another curriculum development initiative for eight (8) national occupational certificate courses in Cape Town this week.
Highly significant is that the curriculum development initiative, the second project of its kind driven by the maritime industry in collaboration with the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO), the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) and the Transport Education and Training Authority (TETA) among others, began in May 2016 with an initial set of seven national maritime sector occupational qualifications, and was completed in under six months with eight courses – a record time.
This emerged during the formal signing off and hand-over of the developed qualifications’ curriculum documentation to QTCO officials at an event held Cape Town on Tuesday.
The eight national maritime sector occupation qualifications for which a new curriculum was developed include;
- Port Operations Master,
- Marine Electro-Technical Officer,
- Aids to Navigation Manager,
- Aids to Navigation Technician,
- Dock Master,
- Traffic Controller (Vessel Tracking System),
- Maritime Search & Rescue Mission Coordinator
- Diver (Commercial).
According to SAMSA senior manager, curriculum development; Mr Edward Pines, the qualifications conceptualized and proposed by SAMSA consistent with the objectives of the Operation Phakisa (Ocean Economy) project, will once formally endorsed by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), greatly enhance the position of holders both locally and for the African region, while providing international recognition. (For Mr Pine’s full remaks Click Here)
However, more crucial to development of the set of qualifications, said Mr Pines, was the direct involvement and input of the country’s maritime sector industries, the critical guidance role played by the QCTO, as well as highly useful contributions by the TETA.
The QCTO is one of three national quality councils established in 2010 in terms of the Skills Development Act, with its role being to oversee the design, implementation, assessment and certification of occupational qualifications on the Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework (OQSF).
The TETA on the other hand, established in 2000 in terms of the Skills Development Act (1998) fulfills the role of a quality assurer consistent with the country’s Skills Development Framework in eight subsectors of the transport sector that include Aerospace, Forwarding & Clearing, Freight Handling, Maritime, Rail, Road Freight, Road Passenger and Taxi Sub Sectors.
Essentially, the qualifications curriculum development team for the set of maritime national occupation qualifications comprised qualification development facilitators, learner qualification development facilitators, a team of Community Expert Practitioners as well as representatives of the respective organizations.
At Tuesday’s handover function, representing the QCTO and TETA – the latter a project funder and development quality facilitator – were several senior officials among them, Mr Mandlenkosi Ndukula and Mr Victor Muhlberg respectively.
Both described the process of development of the eight national qualifications, in record time, as an important milestone in the national effort for reorganization and further development of education and skills in the country’s maritime economic sector.
Mr Ndukula praised SAMSA for spearheading the process and for remaining involved in gallant efforts to ensure that the maritime sector’s education and skills development expanded exponentially also to the Higher Education and Training band in which Technical Education and Vocational Training (TEVT) colleges operate.
“The expansion of maritime education and training to this TVET sector will, without doubt, have positive impact in the upskilling of people,” he said.
[For Mr Ndukula’s remarks, Click Here]
Mr Muhlberg who said he’d worked closely with SAMSA for a number of years, described the process as indicative of the huge process to be achieved when there was greater collaboration among stakeholders.
He said the latest batch of eight qualifications had brought to 13 the total number of maritime sector full qualifications developed recently in addition to about 16 part-qualifications.
“We were signing off today the second batch of qualifications to the QCTO and from whom they will be taken over to the SAQA for registration in the National Qualifications Framework. It is a very big achievement and we are very proud of what we have done here,’ said Mr Muhlberg
For his full remarks: Click Here
Also full of praise for the high level of cooperation experienced by the qualifications curriculum development team and which greatly contributed to process speed, was Yolandi Raath-Booyens, a project manager and qualifications development facilitator.
She described the experience as ‘inspiring.’
She said the developed set of qualifications would benefit not just the maritime and marine transport subsector but also the country’s fishing subsector. This was in reference to the Commercial Diver qualification in three stages, Class 4 30m SCUBA Commercial Diver, Class 3 30m SSDE Commercial Diver, and Class 2 50m Air-Diver.
For her full remarks; Click Here
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