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The requirements for the registration of qualifications and unit standards on the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) include an approach and elements which are not found in similar systems elsewhere. In particular, the system aims to have an integrated view of education and training. As a result, the received approaches to the development of assessment criteria are inadequate. This article discusses some that have emerged since 1996 and proposes a hybrid approach to the development of assessment criteria in the South African context based on a competency model and three categories of assessment criteria. The article also reflects on social learning processes.

Excerpt from published abstract reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder. Show less

As [South African Qualifications Authority] SAQA registers more occupational qualifications, human resource (HR), education and training development (ETD) and related practitioners are facing the challenge of implementing a new curriculum component called 'work experience'. Work experience forms the basis for workplace learning, but few have the tools to prepare for and implement learning programmes in a real-time, real-life working environment. Workplace learning in the form of apprenticeships, internships, articles of clerkship, pupillages and other forms of occupational and professional development is as 'old as the hills', but this means of learning is no longer valued or practised effectively. Yet these development programmes are crucial to the ultimate learning outcome: the development of an occupational identity within a community of practice. This paper outlines some of the challenges and the solutions towards making work experience work.

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