The South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) has launched a pilot digital ‘Certificate of Evaluation’ to benefit holders of qualifications obtained in other countries.
The digital certificate can be shared and verified in real-time as evidence to support applications for further studies, visas, employment, registration and/or professional licensing in South Africa.
It will be offered to holders of valid qualifications that were obtained in other countries upon evaluation of those foreign qualifications.
The digital Certificate comes together with a digital Seal, which can be embedded in email signatures, social media profiles and websites so that holders can showcase their qualifications. In this pilot phase SAQA has used the services of PrivySeal to provide the digital Certificate and the digital Seal in a secure manner.
As part of its mandate, SAQA evaluates foreign qualifications which means that it first verifies the status and authenticity of foreign qualifications and then compares them to national qualifications by locating them within the South African National Qualifications Framework (NQF).
“We are proud of this pilot project and the electronic SAQA Certificate of Evaluation,” said SAQA CEO Joe Samuels.
“Going digital in this way puts SAQA at the forefront of the fourth Industrial Revolution which embraces digitisation and its benefits.”
SAQA said it was the first Qualifications Authority in the world to launch such a digital certificate in a one-year pilot project.
