TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR SAQA’S RPL REFERENCE GROUP
BACKGROUND SAQA is mandated to develop, after consultation with the Quality Councils, national policy for assessment, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Credit Accumulation and Transfer (CAT) (National Qualifications Framework Act No. 67 of 2008). After a deep consultation process SAQA developed RPL policy in 2002, and Criteria and Guidelines for RPL in 2003: both of these documents have been used widely and remain in use but now need to be updated for alignment with the NQF Act of 2008, and take cognizance of the considerable RPL-related knowledge and experience gained across the system since 2002. This update will be done in consultation with the Quality Councils, in line with advice from SAQA RPL Reference Group members, and involve a process of public comment. SAQA also needs to develop policy for assessment in general, and for CAT: these policies are new. It is important to note that while the NQF Act groups assessment, RPL and CAT in a single clause, and that while RPL includes assessment, it is by no means confined to it. Reference Group members will be requested to make inputs for general assessment policy and CAT, and suggestions regarding the packaging of the three sets of policies. SELECTION PROCESS AND CRITERIA FOR SAQA’s RPL REFERENCE GROUP A total of 77 nominations were received for SAQA’s RPL Reference Group at the through democratic process in the four weeks following that. Selection of RPL Reference Group members from this pool of nominees was done by SAQA on the basis of (1) the specialised expertise needed; (2) representation of the spread of types of organizations needed; (3) one person per organization; (4) number of nominations other than ‘self’; and (5) representivity in terms of geographical location – in other words, we tried as far as possible to include people from different provinces across the country. Geographical spread is constrained by the actual nominations available; attempts have been made to widen the spread as much as possible.National RPL Conference (February 2011) and PROPOSED TERMS OF REFERENCE/ RESPONSIBILITIES RPL Reference Group Members must have broad and deep knowledge of RPL; some RPL networks; and to have done or been closely involved with RPL research or practice. Members also need to have some knowledge and experience of assessment in general. While the main focus of the advice sought is RPL, members are also required to contribute to development of SAQA’s policies on assessment in general, and CAT. Additional general assessment experts will be part of the Reference Group. Member responsibilities are: 1. To attend and make inputs in a maximum of three meetings between January 2012 and February 2013, to provide advice regarding: •SAQA’s revision of national policy on RPL; •SAQA’s revision of criteria and guidelines for the implementation of RPL; •Generation of new policy for assessment in general, and CAT •Relationships between the three sets of policies (for assessment, RPL, and CAT) •Packaging of the three sets of policies in the most user-friendly way possible COSTS SAQA will cover travel, venue, and meal costs for all Reference Group meetings, which will take place in single days in each case visit www.saqa.org.za -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
