Impact of Occupational Qualifications Framework on HR

Impact of Occupational Qualifications Framework on HR

The new NQF Bill provides for a fully integrated and needs driven occupational learning system that will meet the needs of industry. To achieve this, extensive use will be made of an “Organising Framework for Occupations” (OFO). The OFO will set the base for linking various occupations to specific skills and will assist in identifying further training needs. The Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) will use to OFO as the basis for developing occupational qualifications to meet the needs of specific industries.

The Department of Labour, with the assistance of International organisations introduced an Organising Framework for Occupations in February 2005 to align all skills development activities in South Africa.

The OFO is a skill-based classification system, which encompasses all occupations in the South African context. The classification of occupations is based on a combination of skills levels and skills specialisation which makes it easy to locate a specific occupation within the framework.

A job is seen as a set of roles or tasks to be performed by an individual.

An occupation describes a series of jobs or specialised tasks, performed by an individual, which can be grouped together for the purpose of this classification.

Identified occupations are classified according to two main criteria -skill level and skill specialisation. The concept of a skill is used in the context of competency rather than a description of a task or function.

The skill level of a job or occupation is related to competent performance of tasks associated with a job or occupation. Skill level is an attribute of an occupation, not of an individual and can be measured by

The level or amount of formal education and/or training (Theory)
The amount of previous experience in a related occupation (Work experience)
The amount of on-the job training usually required to perform the set of tasks required for that occupation competently (Practical application)

It is therefore possible to make a comparison between the skill level of an occupation and the required educational level on the National Qualification Framework.

With the onset of the QCTO and the use of the OFO it stands to reason that HR departments will need to align or re-design profiles for all positions or occupations in a company as closely as possible to the description given in the OFO.

This will be to the benefit of all employees in terms of education and training and will add greatly to the ease of achieving a qualification by means of RPL assessment. In addition it will have advantages in terms of competency based recruiting and selection efforts.

Occupational qualifications will therefore consistof common or core learning and specialised learning components. These components will replace Fundamental, Core and Electives.

Let’s look at an example taken from the OFO

Secretarial Skills (Skill Level 3)

Job Description

Secretaries perform secretarial, clerical and other administrative tasks in support of managers, legal and other professionals.

Tasks or skills

Liaising with other staff to arrange meetings, and to gain and provide information
Preparing reports, briefing notes and correspondence, and proofreading work for typographical and grammatical errors
Maintaining appointment diaries and making travel arrangements
Processing incoming and outgoing mail, filing correspondence and maintaining records
Answering telephone calls, responding to inquiries and redirecting callers
Taking and transcribing dictation of letters and other documents
Greeting visitors, ascertaining nature of business and directing visitors to appropriate persons
May implement management decisions and maintain records of meetings
May handle bookkeeping and petty cash functions

Specialisation

Legal Secretary (Skill Level 3)

Performs secretarial, clerical and other administrative tasks in support of legal professionals

Alternative Title or Specialisation

Judges Assistant

Judges Clerk

From the example it can be seen the tasks and skills are clearly defined and outlined in the profile. This will make the aligning of specific occupations to new qualification a much simpler task. The benefits are that with the introduction of new qualifications each of which will have Theory, Practical and Experience components it will be much simpler to establish training needs and identify with existing competencies.

All of the task or skills components will be core to the qualification and compulsory for a learner. In addition there will be specialisation components to be used by learners as appropriate to the specific occupational requirement as outlined above.

Learner will have to achieve foundational mathematical and language representing the minimum proficiency required in order to be able to engage in occupational learning or as might be required in the context of a specific qualification. These requirements will be on a “fit for purpose” basis.