Why Qualifications Still Matter in a Changing Labour Market?
In a country grappling with high unemployment, skills shortages and growing pressure to “future-proof” the workforce, qualifications are often taken for granted — until they fail. When credentials are unclear, misaligned or mistrusted, the consequences ripple through the economy: employers struggle to hire with confidence, capable people are excluded, and pathways from learning to work become uncertain.
At the centre of South Africa’s qualifications system is the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Established in 1995, SAQA is often known by name, but not always understood in function or impact. Yet its work underpins how skills are recognised, how careers are structured, and how trust is built between education and employment.
This Q&A unpacks SAQA’s role in strengthening the country’s skills ecosystem, and why, in the context of persistent unemployment and skills mismatch, that role has never been more important.
Q & A
What is your organisation's vision, core purpose, values and offering?
The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) is positioned as a world-class National Qualifications Framework (NQF) that works for the people of South Africa.
SAQA’s core purpose is to oversee and strengthen the national qualifications system so that learning—whether acquired through formal education, workplace experience or lifelong learning—is credible, comparable and recognised.
Through the NQF, SAQA ensures that qualifications support mobility, employability, professional progression and social inclusion.
How does your organisation contribute to employment and job creation?
SAQA plays a central role in strengthening South Africa’s skills ecosystem, which directly supports employment and job creation. As the custodian of the National Qualifications Framework, SAQA ensures that qualifications offered in South Africa are credible, comparable and aligned with labour-market needs. This enables the development of a skilled workforce that is better prepared for current and emerging economic opportunities.
A key contribution lies in SAQA’s recognition functions. Through the evaluation and verification of local and foreign qualifications, SAQA enables individuals—both South African and international—to access employment, further study and professional registration. This process ensures that employers can trust the qualifications of applicants, reducing risks in hiring and supporting efficient recruitment.
SAQA also recognises professional bodies and registers professional designations, strengthening professional pathways and ensuring that occupations are underpinned by clear competency standards. This enhances employability by promoting continuous professional development and alignment with industry requirements.
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) further expands access to employment by allowing individuals without formal qualifications to have their existing skills formally recognised. This improves career mobility, progression and access to better-quality jobs, particularly for those historically marginalised.
Through ongoing research and skills data, SAQA provides insight into national skills supply, supporting evidence-based planning for sectors with shortages or high growth potential. In this way, SAQA contributes to employment by ensuring a reliable qualifications system, enabling fair access to opportunity, and supporting a workforce that meets the demands of a transforming economy.
Describe your organisation’s impact on South Africa’s labour market.
SAQA strengthens South Africa’s labour market by ensuring that qualifications are credible, comparable and aligned with industry needs. Through the National Qualifications Framework, SAQA promotes consistent standards that help employers trust the skills of job applicants.
Its evaluation and verification of qualifications protects the labour market from fraud and supports fair recruitment practices. Recognition of Prior Learning expands access to employment by enabling workers to have informal and experiential skills formally recognised.
By recognising professional bodies and providing research on skills trends, SAQA supports a more efficient, inclusive and competitive labour market that is responsive to economic change.
Which groups or communities benefit most from your employment impact?
SAQA’s work benefits a wide range of groups that rely on credible skills recognition to access employment and advancement opportunities.
Youth benefit through strengthened pathways from education into employment. Women gain improved access to recognised qualifications and progression opportunities. Rural and township communities benefit from quality-assured qualifications and RPL pathways that improve access to jobs and training.
Artisans and technical workers benefit from professional recognition and mobility. Graduates benefit from qualification verification that supports fair recruitment. Informal workers benefit when experiential skills are formally recognised, improving employability and income potential.
Overall, SAQA’s impact is strongest among those who require credible recognition to enter, remain in, or progress within the labour market.
Share milestones or achievements that best represent your contribution to employment or workforce development.
Over the past 30 years, SAQA has played a transformative role in shaping a credible, inclusive and skills-driven labour market.
The establishment and maintenance of the National Qualifications Framework has brought coherence, transparency and quality assurance to education and training, enabling millions of South Africans to access qualifications that support employability and mobility.
SAQA’s qualification evaluation and verification services have strengthened employer confidence and protected the labour market from fraudulent credentials. The expansion of Recognition of Prior Learning has opened pathways for workers with informal or experiential skills to gain formal recognition, benefiting artisans, informal workers and historically excluded communities.
The recognition of professional bodies and registration of professional designations has strengthened professional standards and career pathways, while the National Learners’ Records Database has become a critical national resource for skills planning and workforce development.
How does your organisation support demand-led skills development?
SAQA supports demand-led skills development by ensuring that the qualifications system aligns with labour-market priorities.
Through quality assurance and registration, SAQA ensures that qualifications reflect current occupational and sector needs. Recognition of professional bodies supports continuous upskilling and relevance within key industries.
Recognition of Prior Learning enables workers to gain formal recognition for skills already in demand, while the National Learners’ Records Database provides data that supports sector planning, skills forecasting and workforce pipeline development.
Together, these functions ensure that skills development responds to real economic demand.
How do you ensure your skills development work responds to real industry, market, or community needs?
SAQA ensures responsiveness through collaboration, research and alignment with national skills structures.
It works closely with employers, professional bodies and industry experts to ensure that qualifications and designations reflect workplace realities. SAQA collaborates with Quality Councils and SETAs to integrate national and sector priorities into qualifications and pathways.
Labour-market insights and learner data from the National Learners’ Records Database inform evidence-based decision-making. Recognition of Prior Learning ensures that community-level skills are acknowledged and linked to opportunity.
What capacity-building initiatives do you offer for individuals, entrepreneurs, institutions, or communities?
SAQA supports capacity development across individuals, institutions, entrepreneurs and communities.
For individuals, SAQA facilitates mentorship, coaching and guidance related to qualifications recognition and career pathways. RPL support helps individuals formalise and leverage existing skills.
For entrepreneurs and small enterprises, SAQA provides guidance on skills standards and workforce competencies. For institutions, SAQA offers training-of-trainers and capacity-building workshops to ensure quality delivery of NQF-aligned programmes.
Community-focused initiatives strengthen skills awareness, leadership development and access to professional pathways, particularly in underserved areas.
What skills gaps do you see in your sector or community and how are you helping to close them?
South Africa faces persistent skills gaps in technical, professional and emerging sectors such as artisanship, engineering, ICT, healthcare and management.
SAQA addresses these gaps by aligning qualifications with labour-market needs, promoting Recognition of Prior Learning, supporting professional development and providing skills data to inform planning.
Through collaboration with employers, SETAs and training institutions, SAQA helps bridge gaps between education, skills development and economic demand.
How does your organisation empower young people or emerging leaders?
SAQA empowers youth through pathways that support education, skills development and career progression.
Learnerships, internships and bursaries provide access to learning and workplace exposure. Mentorship, coaching and leadership development initiatives support professional growth and confidence.
By focusing on inclusion and access, SAQA strengthens the youth talent pipeline and prepares emerging leaders to contribute meaningfully to the economy.
Which youth demographic do you focus on most?
SAQA focuses primarily on unemployed youth, graduates, and youth from rural and township communities, with particular attention to women and previously disadvantaged groups.
These groups often face barriers to skills recognition and employment. SAQA’s initiatives are designed to improve access, mobility and inclusion within the labour market.
Share one youth-focused initiative, programme, or story that demonstrates your impact.
One of SAQA’s most impactful youth-focused initiatives is Recognition of Prior Learning for emerging artisans. Through RPL, young people with informal or workplace-based skills gain nationally recognised credentials, enabling transitions into apprenticeships, learnerships and employment in high-demand trades.
This initiative demonstrates how skills recognition can unlock opportunity and build confidence.
How does your organisation support entrepreneurs, SMEs, or microbusinesses?
SAQA supports entrepreneurs and SMEs by strengthening skills recognition, professional credibility and workforce readiness.
Through mentorship and guidance, SAQA helps businesses align workforce competencies with industry standards. RPL support enables SMEs to formalise employee skills, improving productivity and competitiveness.
These initiatives support enterprise growth, job creation and sustainable participation in the economy.
Which types of entrepreneurs do you support most?
SAQA primarily supports micro-enterprises, township SMEs, women-owned businesses and youth-owned enterprises.
These groups often face barriers related to skills recognition and professional credibility. SAQA’s support helps them build capable teams and access economic opportunity.
How has your mission evolved over time?
Since its establishment in 1995, SAQA’s mission has evolved in response to South Africa’s changing education and labour-market needs.
Initially focused on developing and implementing the National Qualifications Framework, SAQA has expanded its mandate to include RPL, qualification verification, professional body recognition and workforce planning.
Today, SAQA’s mission centres on inclusion, employability, lifelong learning and future readiness.
What innovations, approaches, or solutions have made the biggest difference in your impact journey?
Key innovations include the establishment of the NQF, the expansion of Recognition of Prior Learning, the development of the National Learners’ Records Database, and collaborative partnerships with employers, SETAs and professional bodies.
Mentorship, coaching and youth-focused programmes have further strengthened leadership and career readiness.
What challenges have you faced in driving employment, skills, youth, or entrepreneurial impact and how have you overcome them?
SAQA has faced challenges related to skills mismatch, access and inclusion. These have been addressed through alignment with industry standards, expanded RPL pathways, collaboration with stakeholders, and targeted youth and community initiatives.
What legacy would you like your organisation to leave for Africa’s next generation?
SAQA’s legacy is a qualifications system that is trusted, inclusive and enabling.
A system where skills are recognised wherever they are learned, where qualifications open doors rather than create barriers, and where young people and workers can move through education and into work with clarity, confidence and dignity.
The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) is the oversight body of the NQF and the custodian of its values and quality character.
The role of SAQA, as stipulated in the NQF Act, is to advance the objectives of the NQF, oversee the further development and implementation of the NQF, and co-ordinate the Sub-Frameworks. SAQA’s functions are set out in section 13 of the NQF Act.
The system behind the skills
In conversations about unemployment and skills shortages, attention often focuses on programmes, funding and quick fixes. Yet beneath all of these sits a quieter system that determines whether skills are recognised, trusted and transferable.
SAQA’s work reminds us that reducing skills mismatch is not only about creating new qualifications, but about ensuring that learning formal and informal, is meaningful, credible and connected to opportunity.
As South Africa seeks to build a more inclusive and competitive economy, the strength of its qualifications system will continue to shape who gets access to work, who progresses, and who is left behind.
