ABSTRACT
The NQF in South Africa has been seen internationally as one of the most, if not the most, ambitious qualifications frameworks. Support for the NQF at its inception was described as ‘extraordinary’ (Manganyi 1996, 5). It aimed to replace all existing qualifications in the country with a set of new qualifications designed by new structures; this was intended to ensure the overhaul of all learning programmes and curricula. Its designers and supporters hoped that getting groups of stakeholders to create new qualifications and unit standards (part qualifications) consisting of learning outcomes, would lead to new provision and new institutions, as well as to many individuals getting qualifications based on knowledge and skills that they already had. This in turn, it was hoped, would contribute to solving educational, social, and economic problems.
