Over the past three decades, the world of education and skills development has transformed. Traditional, multi-year qualifications are no longer the only route to professional credibility. Learners today expect flexibility, speed, relevance, and global recognition. To understand how we arrived at this moment, it is useful to revisit the origins of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), reflect on the era of legacy qualifications, and explore why modern learners and employers are embracing micro-learning and professional certificates at a rapid pace.
A Short History of the NQF
The South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF) was established in the mid-1990s as part of the broader transformation of the education and training landscape. Its purpose was ambitious and revolutionary:
- Create a single, integrated framework for all learning—academic, vocational, and occupational.
- Improve access to learning opportunities for all South Africans.
- Standardise qualifications, ensuring consistency and quality across providers.
- Support mobility across sectors, industries and educational pathways.
- Recognise prior learning (RPL) so that skills gained outside the classroom could count towards formal qualifications.
The NQF introduced levels, registered qualifications, unit standards and national standards bodies—all designed to regulate learning, track progression and ensure national comparability.
At this early stage, qualifications were often written as legacy qualifications: long, detailed, unit-standard–based programmes that could span up to three years. These qualifications were structured and thorough but not always agile or responsive to the fast-changing realities of industry.
The Era of Legacy Qualifications
Legacy qualifications served an important purpose. They created a national baseline for quality, consistency, and credibility. They were designed in committees comprising industry specialists, academics and training experts. On paper, they represented an ideal world of structured learning pathways.
However, over time, several limitations emerged:
It could take years to design or update a qualification—by the time it was registered, industry needs had often already moved on.
Barriers to entry
For working adults, the time commitment required for a large qualification could be discouraging, especially when shorter, focused skills were more urgently needed.
As the world of work began to move faster, education models needed to evolve and as such the “nugget” and “earn while you learn” with Professional Certification has grown phenomenally
