“Short courses make a significant contribution to the enhancement of personal learning and the nation’s skills base. Many sectors of the economy rely on short courses for the upgrading of employees’ skills and professional development” – SAQA Criteria and Guidelines for Short Courses and Skills Programmes 1994:42.

The South African Qualifications Authority’s (SAQA) current definition of a short course is a course that has a credit value of less than 120 credits (which is considered equivalent to a year of full-time study) and is therefore not considered as a whole qualification. These courses are not registered on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF).

The accreditation processes and quality assurance procedures for short learning programmes are aligned to the same processes that the provider follows for whole qualifications.