Regulations for workplace-based learning (WPBL) programme agreements

The Gazetted (RSA, 2018: 43) Regulations define ‘workplace based learning’ as an “educational component of an occupational qualifications that provides students with real life work experiences where they can apply academic and technical skills and increase the prospect of employability”. It further defines ‘workplace based learning programme’ as an “intervention as contemplated in an occupational qualification [through] which a person internalizes knowledge, skills and competencies and gain insights through exposure to work by achieving specific outcomes to enhance employability”.

The Gazetted (RSA, 2018) WPBL agreement, Annexure A (pp 54-65), Part C, section 6 (p. 63), differentiates nine (9) types of workplace-based learning programmes, defined in Part B – Definitions (pp 54-55), namely:

1. Apprenticeship — a period of WPBL culminating in an occupational qualification for a listed trade
2. Learnership — a period of WPBL culminating in an occupational qualification or part qualification
3. Internship for the ‘N’ Diploma — a period of WPBL undertaken as part of the requirement for the ‘N’ Diploma
4. Candidacy — a period of WPBL undertaken by a graduate as part of a requirement for registration as a professional in the required professional designation as stipulated by a professional body
5. Student internship: Category A — a period of WPBL undertaken as part of the requirement for the Diploma, National Diploma, Higher Certificate or Advanced Certificate as a vocational qualification stipulated in the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF)
6. Student internship: Category B — a period of WPBL undertaken as part of the requirement for a professional qualification
7. Student internship: Category C — a period of WPBL undertaken as part of the requirement for the Occupational Qualifications of the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO)
8. Student internship — a period of WPBL for a person who is enrolled at an education and training institution for a SAQA registered qualification and may include vacation work
9. Graduate internship — a period of WPBL for the purposes allowing a person who has completed a post-school qualification to gain workplace experience or exposure to enhance competence and/or employability. This may include academic staff with existing qualifications that need industrial exposure or experience.

Part C (pp. 55-) of the agreement addresses the terms and conditions:

• Declaration of the parties — learners, employers and providers
• Rights & duties of the learner (pp. 55-56), the employer (pp. 56-57), and provider (pp. 57-58)
• Completion or termination of the agreement (p. 58)
• Learner details (pp. 59-60) and contract of employment (p 63)
• Employer details (pp. 60-61)
• Provider details (p. 62)
• Signatories (pp. 64-65)

The Gazetted Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) – WPBL programme agreement Regulations (RSA, 2018: 40) states that the purpose is to provide for:

• adding to the definition of ‘learning programme’ the terms ‘candidacy’ and ‘internship’, which are recognised forms of work-based learning (WBL);
• “the preparation, submission, registration and management of work-based learning programme agreements, and [for] the management of disputes and certain administrative arrangements”; and
• the repeal of the former 2007 Learnership Regulations

The Regulations, applicable to all workplace-based learning (WPBL) programmes, comprise six (6) chapters, including the following content:

1. Definitions (1) and Application (2)
2. Parties to the agreement (3) and their rights and duties (4)
3. Registration of agreement, including submission of agreement form (5), conditional placement of the learner (6), requirements of registration (7), additional requirements for a group of employers (8), and for a group of providers (9), registration decision by SETA (10), amendment of agreement (11), substitution of party (12), suspension of agreement (13), termination of agreement (14), clarification of learner achievements (15), and completion of agreement (16)
4. Registering learnerships (17), amending registered learnerships (18), and deregistration of learnerships (19)
5. The referral of disputes (20)
6. Administrative provisions such as recordkeeping by SETAs (21), repeal of regulations (22), transitional arrangements (23), and short title and commencement from 1 April 2019 (24)

There is further an annexure B, namely an ‘application to register a learnership’.

Republic of South Africa (RSA). (2018). Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) workplace based learning programme agreement regulations. Department of Higher Education and Training. Government Gazette No 42037, 16 November 2018. Skills Development Act (Act 97 of 1998). Electronically accessible from https://www.dhet.gov.za/gazetteTEST/Workplace%20Based%20learning%20Programme%20Agreement.pdf