Dear CIPS Southern Africa Partner in Procurement
The Supply Chain Management qualifications journey has been one filled with mountains, glorious valleys, and desolate wastelands.
During March 2009 key stakeholders from various professional bodies, industry, public and private sector organisations started drawing the Supply Chain Management roadmap of qualifications that will form the basis of the Integrated Supply Chain Management Qualifications Framework.
Our journey from then ‘til now, are as follows: 1. Development of SCM Qualifications:
CIPS Group, as the Professional Body for Purchasing and Supply globally, sponsored the development of the SCM Training and Development Landscape document as at the end of March 2009, and the subsequent development (in collaboration with independent consultants, key industry stakeholders and SAQA) of the new SCM qualifications aligned to the exit level outcome National Diploma already registered on the NQF, as well as the development of the mapping framework to the CIPS Qualifications ladder. These qualifications were registered by SAQA on 2 December 2009.
2. Application from ETQA:
SAQA advertised the availability of the new qualifications in the Government Gazette with the aim of attracting the attention of a potential ETQA to adopt it under their remit, with no responses received. This process, which involves obtaining buy-in from all Chambers and Industry, a Government Gazetted invitation for input from other ETQAs and final approval within the Seta could take in excess of 3 months to conclude.
CIPS SA was informed on Wednesday 28 July that this process has been concluded and that we can proceed with our training provider application to the Transport Seta. The NQF level 6 and 7 qualifications will reside under the Council for Higher Education (CHE) until the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations are fully functional which means that we will be applying to the CHE for training provider status as well.
3. Accreditation as Training Provider:
CIPS Southern Africa subsequently applied for training provider accreditation with the Transport Seta on 26 October 2010 and were granted provisional accreditation status against the NQF Level 5 qualification on 22 February 2011 (please see pdf document). CIPS Southern Africa has furthermore applied to be registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a private higher education and training provider.
4. What’s in it for you?
As organisation: you can claim back your Mandatory Grants (A and B) from your Seta against the training that were done at CIPS Level 3 and 4.
As an individual: you will be able to accumulate credits against the NQF level 5 Supply Chain Management qualification on the National Learner Record Database. This means that you will be awarded both the International Certificates, as well as the National NQF accredited qualification.
The Qualifications are as follows:
The SAQA Consultative Panel advised that the current level 6 qualification registered on the NQF be re-written into 2 qualifications with lesser credit values, as no qualification of a credit value of 240 will be accepted on the new NQF.
We are currently planning for the development of these 2 new unit standard aligned qualifications at levels 6 and 7 on the new NQF under the QCTO during the course of 2010:
I hope this provides you with more clarity in terms of SAQA and CIPS accreditation on the NQF.
You are more than welcome to contact me should you require more clarity.
Yolandi Raath-Booyens Head: Professional Development and Membership / CIPS Southern Africa Tel nr: +27-12-345-6177 I Cel nr: +27-82-335-8488