1. NCV Certification Backlog Portfolio Committee: Higher Education 22 February 2017

2. National Certificate (Vocational)
Certification
Umalusi is required by law to:
Issue credible certificates that are quality assured and verified
Ensure compliance to the requirements of the qualification
Ensure and verify that the calculation of results is according to national policy.
Therefore Umalusi cannot accept requests for certification that do not comply with regulated requirements.
All requests for certification have been processed – no outstanding requests.
Rejection/error reports are supplied with the return datasets.

3. Process flow for certification
Learner meets admission requirements
Schedule of entries verified for correctness
Learner registration
Re-mark, re-check and mop-up
Exams written, quality assured by Umalusi, marked, resulting after quality assurance, issuing of Statement of Results
Admission letter printed and disseminated
Data compared to approved data and programme requirements
No errors, certificate printed, sent to DHET for dissemination to Colleges
Data submitted to Umalusi for quality assurance
Request for certification
Validated against supporting documents if applicable
No errors – certificate printed
New request for certification
Errors found/discrepancies – DHET requested for supporting documents or correct identified error
Errors/discrepancies – rejected until corrected

4. Certification processNr
Process
Purpose 1
Structure of Qualifications
Ensure both systems (DHET and Umalusi) are aligned to qualification requirements. 2
Registration data (new process)
Confirm correct registration; compare with certification data 3
Norms
Historical averages based on previous 5 years 4
Standardization
Standardize external examination marks and adjustments 5
Statistical Moderation and Resulting
SM per examination centre.
“Resulting data” is checked on subject level and on candidate level. 6
Re-Marks; Re-check; Outstanding marks
“Mop up” process to clear all outstanding marks 7
Certification 1
“Bulk certification”
All candidates not writing supplementary exam.
Final candidate marks submitted by DHET. 8
Supplementary examination
Conduct supplementary exam and provide results 9
“Mop up” process to clear all outstanding marks for Supplementary exam 10
Certification 2
Certification – main & supplementary exam 11
Certification 3
Consolidated/Combined records across multiple exam sittings

5. National Certificate (Vocational)
Certification
Progress with NC(V) backlog
NC(V) backlog – all certificates not issued are regarded as the backlog.
Umalusi acknowledges the progress with the elimination of the original backlog (2007/11 – 2012/03)
Umalusi can only verify the number of certificates issued
Umalusi cannot verify the number outstanding

6. National Certificate (Vocational)
Certification
Number of certificates issued
When reporting on the number of certificates issued, we must distinguish between subject and full certificates.
Also important to note difference between first issues and “replacements” [Replacements – combination/consolidation over multiple exam sitting, or lost]
For the period Oct 2016 to Jan 2017:
Number of datasets (requests) received by Umalusi + 227
Number of certificates issued:
The question still remains – how many certificates are outstanding?

7. National Certificate (Vocational)
Certification
Number of certificates issued at Level 4 (exit)
NCV Level 4
Period – to date (as on 29 Jan 2017)
Total
Subject statements:
92 055
Certificates:
First issues
Replacement (Combinations)
Admission to:
699 2
701
Bachelors
4 709 76
4 785
Diploma
15 406
2 995
18 401
Certificate
23 887

8. National Certificate (Vocational)
Certification
Combination/Consolidation over multiple exam sittings a priority
The combination of candidate records across multiple exam periods remains outstanding.
First issue certificates are issued but a limited number of replacement (combinations) requests are being submitted to Umalusi.
Cannot determine the scope of the outstanding combinations.
Reason for low final certificate issue rate raises questions:
Full-time vs Part-time?
Held up by the lack of certification for levels 2 and 3 for certain candidates?
Lack of combinations/consolidated certificates issued?
Low pass rate?

9. National Certificate (Vocational)
Certification
Data anomalies / mark differences
The assessment body, that is, the DHET, is responsible for the final marks to be certified.
Outstanding final marks that result in error reports are due to:
Marks indicated as absent changed to a valid mark;
Unexplained changes to approved raw marks;
Unexplained changes in statistical moderation records, etc
Umalusi cannot accept changes in marks or incorrect calculations.
Umalusi undertakes verification of evidence for mark changes.
Performs verification tests on datasets and provides feedback.
This quality assurance process is common to all qualifications.

10. National Certificate (Vocational)
Certification
Umalusi committed to supporting the DHET & SITA
Umalusi has granted a once-off concession to the DHET to sort out the mark anomalies for the period – To do so:
DHET is to formalize the mop up processes for these two exam cycles with the colleges
DHET affidavit testifying to the full verification process undertaken and accuracy of data
DHET to provide a time-plan in writing
Provision of a test data set for these cycles for checking
Agreement that once certified no further changes to marks will be accepted by Umalusi
No certification of the datasets until these requirements are met
Umalusi remains committed to issuing certificates credibly and reliably, and within the requirements of its mandate.