20 minute read
University Isn’t Your Only Option
GATHER YOUR SKILLS in a suitcase
Collect them one by one and take them wherever you go…
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Work hard, complete matric, enrol at a university, get your degree, then perhaps a higher degree, then get appointed to a job, settling into the workplace and starting your career… It’s easy to believe that this is the only path to career success. However, this is not the only way to further your education and climb the career ladder, writes Jamaine Krige.
Your parents and educators may be encouraging you to explore your options for pursuing a tertiary education after you complete your matric. But university isn’t for everyone, and a degree is not the only qualification that will help you find a job.
For some careers, university is your only option – but not everyone wants to be doctor, lawyer or engineer. Many others have found that a degree is no longer a guarantee to a high-paying job, or even employment! In South Africa, there are many colleges and training institutions that can help you gain a recognised SETA- or QCTO-endorsed certificate, diploma or qualification that is NQF-accredited and unit standard-aligned. It can be confusing when you first try to navigate the acronyms, abbreviations and terminology in the South African education and learning sector. SAQA manages a register of all the qualifications available in South Africa. Training institutions must, therefore, get themselves accredited and must also get qualifications or programmes accredited if they want them to carry weight. A qualification that is not registered or accredited is not on the NQF. This means it will not be recognised nationally and you cannot get the credit for the qualification to study further.
NQF, SETA, QCTO, TVET… What does it all mean?
Here is a list of what you need to know:
• NQF: National Qualifications Framework • SAQA: South African Qualifications Authority • SETA: Sector Education and Training Authorities • QCTO: Quality Council for Trades and Occupations • TVET: Technical and Vocational Education and Training
Sub framework
General and Further Education and Training Qualifications Sub Framework (GFETQSF)
Higher Education Qualification Sub Framework (HEQSF) Occupational qualifications Sub Framework (OQSF) NQF at a glance
NQF level
1
Qualification types
Grade 9
2
3
4
5
6 Grade 10/National (vocational) Certificates level 2/Occupational Certificates Grade 11/National (vocational) Certificates level 3/Occupational Certificates Grade 12/National (vocational) Certificates level 4/Occupational Certificates Higher Certificate/Advanced National (vocational) Certificates/Occupational Certificates Diploma/Advanced Certificate/Occupational Certificates
7
8 Degree/Advanced Diploma/Post-Graduate Certificate Honours/Post-Graduate Diploma
9
10 Masters
Doctorate
So how did it all start?
The history of the NQF Karen Gray has been running Gray Training since 1987, but has been involved in the South African education space for much longer than that; first as a teacher and then as a university lecturer. South Africa’s journey to get to the current education and training system is a fascinating story, and one Karen loves telling.
To understand where we are today, Karen says it’s important to first understand where we come from:
“We at Gray Training are privileged to have been a part of how the industry has changed and grown. If we think about our country pre-democracy, so pre-1994, we were obviously still in an apartheid environment. We had a skills crisis, we had huge international competition, and we had a bad education system; an imbalanced education system.
One of the most important issues was thus how we would right the scales and restore the balance for people who had been previously disadvantaged in education. How could we get them some certification or accreditation or a piece of paper that says that they may not have a formal education from a school or university, but that through the school of life they have developed certain skills and competencies that should be taken into consideration? Many other countries were in the same position.
One of the first big tasks was to get the Department of Labour and the Department of Education to reach some type of consensus. The legislation we have now was born from that.
In South Africa, we had to find a way to help people gain that parity and equality
You may have left school in Grade 7, but you could read and write and had studied and learned other things on your own. You may have gained skills with a really good innate sense of maths. Therefore, there needed to be a way that you could actually receive some formal benefit for that life experience. And this was the concept that birthed the National Qualifications Framework,” she recalls.
What is the NQF? “Well, it’s basically a system that says we all know you can go the academic route – starting in Grade 1, going to university after leaving Grade 12 and earning your degrees all the way through to PhD level.
But there is another route for Joe, who left school in Grade 8, but applied himself and can read and write at a university level and can do a lot of other stuff because he’s taught himself how. He’d like to work towards having that acknowledged and work towards maybe getting a Grade 10 or even a Grade 12. So, to assist Joe and others like them, systems were put in place to help, but they needed an apparatus to make sense of it.
“Imagine a tower, which is your academic route. That tower is then divided into levels or floors. The first level was Grade 9 and the fourth was matric – so those first four ‘floors’ were the basic education or schooling system. Then there are other levels above it, going through the degrees all the way to the top level, which is a PhD. And the government said okay, you can go in through the front door and climb this tower, or you can put up a ladder and enter in a different way,” Karen explains.
Unit standards “You can come along with your workplace experience and apply to get the equivalent of a Grade 10 or Grade 12 education. But how could you do that? You weren’t at school and you didn’t write exams. So, they decided to implement something called unit standards, which are based on tasks you perform in the workplace. And each task is set at a specific level, and depending on the difficulty of the task, it is assigned a certain value, known as credits. So, an easy task might get you two credits, while a harder one might get you more. And the idea is that with all the skills you’ve tucked away into your suitcase, you can go to a company that offers certificates at an NQF level 2, which would be at a Grade 10 level. You have specific skills and won’t have to start from scratch because you can show what you have done and learnt. So, maybe
The different routes to a qualification Levels: 5-8
Tertiary and Research
Research Higher Degrees Initial Degrees National and Higher and Diplomas Professional Employment
Senior Secondary Schools
Technical Colleges & Community Private Providers & NGO’s Industry Training Labour RTC’s Market Schemes
Colleges
Levels: 2-4
to Higher National Certificate(s) CORE and APPLIED GENERIC and OPTIONS
Levels: 1 Compulsary COMPULSARY SCHOOLING: Level 1 or the
General Certificate of Education ABE & TRAINING: Level 1 of the General Cerificate of Education - GETC
Grade 9 ABET 4
Grade 7 ABET 3
Grade 5 ABET 2 you can present them with the letters and emails you’ve sent, or with proof of the skills you already have, and you can get some credits towards the certificate they are offering. You won’t have to start at the very beginning. That is what we call recognition of prior learning or RPL,” Karen continues.
Climbing the education tower “So, if you go back to that image of the tower, it means that you as someone who has not learned within the academic environment can come along with your suitcase of life experience and skills and use it to climb your way up – making your way partially up another floor, or even gaining a level completely, depending on your suitcase.
“If you’ve been working and have gained a lot of skills, you can even approach a university that offers a degree in your field or a company that offers a journalism diploma and ask them to consider giving you RPL credits for the experience you have. They can assess your experience and determine which unit standards you still need to do to fill the gaps and achieve the level.
Today, all education and training outside of school or university has a unit standard attached to it, and every qualification is made up of a number of these unit standards – little pieces of the whole that you can actually apply to have recognised towards reaching a higher level of education
Karen Gray
What are my options? Karen Gray, CEO of Gray Training, describes herself as a learning and training consultant. She is also well known as ‘the trainer of trainers’, both in South Africa and across the continent. This means she teaches other people how to conduct training and facilitate learning in their areas of expertise.
“A trainer is someone who teaches others; within the workplace, that means it’s a person who actually teaches workplace skills,” she explains.
She says when you consider what you bring to the table, you should imagine your life and your life experiences in a suitcase: “You fill that suitcase with all the opportunities, qualifications and experiences you have gained through life. So, whatever you did at school – whether it was sport or debate or chess – keep a record of that. In the future, there will be an opportunity to draw upon those particular skills.” University is just one of the ways to fill your suitcase.
Dr Sandra Roberts is the academic head of fraycollege, an institution that provides communication training to individuals and corporate groups. “There are many qualifications you can pursue, even if you don’t get university exemption. You can also decide to do a bridging course to help your chances of getting accepted next time,” she explains. “It is important to realise that university is not for everyone.” In fact, she says, some of the most-needed skills in South Africa at the moment are skills you can’t get from a university degree!
University: Knowledge vs skills
Karen believes university is great for a number of reasons. It gives you a theoretical knowledge base and teaches you life skills like problemsolving, organisational and analytical skills. It further enables you to meet new people and expand your experiences. “There are, however, other qualifications that offer a more practical approach to building skills,” she explains. This type of learning can be accessed through technical colleges or other smaller education and training institutions like Gray Training or fraycollege.
Dr Sandra Roberts
Karen says it’s important to think about the specific career you’re considering. For instance, degrees do exist for graphic design, but some of the most amazing work and innovative, future-focused learning in this field is happening at small studios and design schools that offer unit-standard-based courses and qualifications. “That’s what you should be looking for. Instead of saying: ‘I want to study at a university,’ or ‘I don’t want to go to university,’ ask yourself: ‘What is the best way of achieving my goals? What can I afford? Will a degree serve me best or is a certificate or diploma a better route? Can I take a gap year and actually work somewhere for a year, or spend some time as a volunteer?’”
Sandra explains that a university degree won’t help your career at all in some fields. “For instance, if you want to be a craftsperson like a mechanic, electrician or machine operator, a university degree won’t really prepare you for your chosen occupation. You’ll just be wasting time and money.” She says there are lots of job opportunities when you’ve honed certain practical vocation skills, and many of these jobs are unlikely to be replaced by mechanisation in the near future.
It’s in these fields where short courses, diplomas and certificates come in handy, and where the TVET colleges have a role to play. South Africa’s TVET colleges focus on vocational and occupational training, with the aim of preparing students to become functional workers in a skilled trade. You are likely to obtain your qualification quicker and at a much lower cost, and the focus is on getting you into the workforce faster, with all the skills you will need to function.
Some of these institutions might offer diplomas or certificates, or they might offer stand-alone short courses aligned to a specific unit standard at an NQF level.
“They offer a critical skill, or at least a part of a critical skill,” says Karen, adding that the good ones are always attached to practical experience.
“University can give you a piece of paper, but it does not mean you can do the job,” Sandra adds. “This is because university is supposed to build up your ability to see and understand the world by exposing you to different ideas and ways of thinking, with the ideal end result being that you end up with a set of tools to help you think critically and analyse knowledge.” This toolkit should hopefully also include the ability to think and act independently, as well as figure things out for yourself, which is invaluable in the workplace. This is not always the case.
“Many people graduate with the idea that they can’t work things out for themselves, because they’ve been taught that there is a ‘right way’ and a ‘wrong way’ to think and go about doing things,” says Sandra. In short, university education is geared towards the transfer of knowledge, and not necessarily the transfer of skills.
If your parents think university is the only option and you’re worried that prospective employers might not take your other courses and qualifications seriously, Karen has a suggestion for you. “Look at some of the vacancy adverts out at the moment for jobs you might think you’d like to do one day. On most of the ads out there, you’ll see they ask for a matric certificate or a degree of sorts – or an NQF-level equivalent. So, either route would be acceptable if you’re applying for that job!”
Do I need a matric certificate to enrol for these courses? When can I start?
The advantage of NQF-based learning and training is that you can start immediately. These courses are offered at a number of different NQF levels and that means you don’t need matric to do them. “Depending on the entrance requirements of the specific course, you can even start while you’re still at school,” Sandra explains, but cautions learners from taking on too much at the expense of other responsibilities.
Looking at your future needs and current interests
Karen also says you don’t have to wait until you have your matric certificate in hand before you start focusing on developing these critical skills. “Every unit standard has an entry qualification. That means some courses are set at level 5, which means you will need to have an NQF level 4 in communication and maths - in other words, you need matric to do that course.” But not all unit standards are set at level 5. “You can do courses in business writing, teamwork or negotiating skills at an NQF level 2 or 3, so you can start those even if you haven’t completed Grade 12.” The trick, she says, is to choose something that will not only serve your future needs, but your current interests too. “You might be a keen debater, so perhaps you can invest in negotiation skills by finding a training academy that offers a unit standard at an NQF level 2 or 3,” she suggests. “Go for it, but just make sure that there is going to be that practical application afterwards, and that you get to feel as if you’re learning towards something you can use.”
Bridging the skills gap The problem with many university degrees, Sandra says, is that they don’t actually prepare young people for the world of work. “In some cases, going to university may delay your entrance into the workplace. If you lack work experience after school and don’t gain any work experience while studying, then you still won’t have work experience when you graduate! University studies and degrees don’t replace workplace experience, and the skills needed to do a job and the skills that employees actually possess. “More employers are recognising that people often come out of university with a lot of book knowledge but without the practical skills to do the job,” Sandra explains. “For instance, in journalism and communications, you can learn about the history of the media and the different communication theories and other topics, but never get to practise what you should be doing – writing, filming, posting on social media and creating news stories or entertainment content.”
Short courses can help towards addressing the skills gap in South Africa. “A skills gap is a skills crisis,” says Karen. “This isn’t new – it’s been this way for decades! But what is happening now is that we’re seeing this crisis become more acute as the world around us changes.” The skills gap doesn’t mean there is a knowledge gap, but rather that people lack what Karen calls ‘fingertips skills’. “These are the skills you don’t have to think about, you don’t have to research or google before you do them, because you have practical experience and are so capable that the skills are literally at your fingertips when you need them.”
often won’t equip you with the workreadiness and network-building skills you’ll need to succeed at a job.”
She says universities also don’t test knowledge in a practical way, or in a way reflective of how skills would be tested in the work environment: “You’re not very likely to have to sit down to write a threehour test when you’re working and your employer wants something done!” This disconnect is what is known as ‘the skills gap’ – the difference between
A skills gap is a skills crisis
After all, she says, you don’t want a doctor who has to consult a textbook while treating you in the emergency room. Employers don’t want to hire someone who first has to google professional email etiquette or how to use Microsoft Word before completing a task.
This is why at Gray Training, Karen takes the concept of outcomes-based education and training very seriously. “What this means is that when we measure to see whether someone has acquired the unit standard or qualification skills, we don’t measure it in the classroom and we don’t measure them with a test or an exam. Instead, we measure and test their competency based on how well they actually perform the skill, and how they are putting it to use out there in the real world!”
“In practical terms, this means you attend a training session, you master the skill, and then you are expected to go out and actually put that skill to use outside the classroom, in your workplace. The portfolio of evidence that you submit for the training shows how you have implemented your learning in the real world, and you are marked accordingly,” says Karen. But what if you don’t have a workplace or employer where you can put your training to use and show that you’ve mastered the skill in question? “That doesn’t matter at all,” says Karen. “There are many ways that we can help you to find opportunities to put your new skills to use – you could do your practicals at school, at volunteer organisations, or in your church group.”
Part of implementing these skills outside the classroom means recording what you’ve done and how you’ve done it. “Only once we’ve seen you using these skills will we say that you have reached the outcome and are competent,” says Karen. “And that’s really the difference in what we do and what drives how we do it.” Non-university qualifications and short courses, like those that fall under the SETAs and QCTO, are designed from the outset to get you practising and honing the skills you will need to do the job, says Sandra.
“We actually test what you can do, not just what you know.” This means that, after a unit-standard-aligned course, you are actually able to do the things you learned. And because you develop a portfolio of evidence in the process, you also have the proof that you have the skill in question.
We have the knowledge, but a lot of people haven’t translated those theories into the fingertip skills needed to do the job yet
By the time you complete the fraycollege communication certificate, for instance, you will have a portfolio of written articles, photographs and video and audio content – not just a list of marks.
Adding to your skills suitcase The good news, Sandra says, is you don’t have to choose one or the other. Certificates and short courses can supplement a university degree and make you more employable – and more competent – in the long run. In the past, she says, fresh graduates would be expected to complete some practical, on-the-job, skills-based training when they first start at a new job as part of their orientation. Today, employers have done away with this and often expect graduates to already have all the skills needed to do the work. They don’t have the time or resources to show young employees the ropes and help them gain competency. “This is why more companies are offering internships,” she explains. “An internship is supposed to enable you to learn to implement your knowledge and gain the skills it underpins.”
Karen agrees that short courses can be a great way to supplement your university education and tuck different skills into that life suitcase you carry. “If you’re able to go to university and you’ve decided that’s what you want to do, then that’s great,” she says. “If you don’t want to go to university and you want to work on your practical skills, be sure to look for an organisation or institution that is going to offer you NQFlevel training that you can use towards a certificate, diploma or degree.”
Don’t forget your suitcase! And never forget your suitcase! “Do you volunteer with the church or an old-age home or animal shelter? What skills are you picking up? Put them in your suitcase because it all becomes relevant later. Learning is never exclusive to one place, and all the learning you do throughout life is complementary and supplementary to your journey.”
