This is the simple version of how apprentices, employers, taxes, training boards, SETAs, QCTO and funding became the system we know today.
South Africa needed skilled artisans, but apartheid rules restricted who could enter many skilled trades. Large employers and state-owned enterprises trained many artisans, yet access was racially unequal.
Think of a trade as learning to build a very difficult machine. Section 13 was the organised school-and-work route: you became a formal apprentice, trained under a contract, learned the trade and eventually sat the trade test. Section 28 recognised the experienced worker: if you had enough real trade experience, you could prove it and be admitted to the trade test even without the same formal apprenticeship journey.
Apprenticeship numbers fell. Government records describe training-budget cuts, withdrawal of earlier tax incentives and commercialisation/privatisation pressures at large state enterprises that had historically trained artisans. South Africa needed a broader, more inclusive system.
Government, labour, employers and education stakeholders worked toward a national training strategy. The SAQA Act of 1995 created the legal foundation for a National Qualifications Framework — one national language for recognised learning.
The new law created a national, sector and workplace skills-development framework, connected learning to the NQF, created learnership mechanisms and provided for a levy-grant system and the National Skills Fund.
The Skills Development Levies Act created the levy. It began at 0.5% in April 2000 and moved to 1% in April 2001. Today, employers above the applicable threshold generally pay SDL based on remuneration.
SETAs were formally launched to organise skills planning by sectors of the economy. Each sector studies its labour needs, develops a Sector Skills Plan and uses grant mechanisms to support training priorities.
The 2008 Skills Development Amendment Act provided for the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) and repealed remaining Manpower Training Act provisions. QCTO was launched in 2010 to strengthen quality assurance for occupational learning.
Modern trade-test regulations stopped new trade-test applications under the repealed Section 28 route. Experienced workers can instead use the modern Recognition of Prior Learning / Artisan Recognition of Prior Learning mechanisms and current trade-test rules.
Occupational education increasingly integrates knowledge, practical skills and workplace experience, followed by external assessment or trade testing where applicable. The goal is not simply attendance — it is verified occupational competence.
The Medium-Term Development Plan makes inclusive economic growth and job creation the apex priority, alongside reducing poverty and building a capable, ethical developmental state.
The 2026 State of the Nation Address announced a fundamental skills-system overhaul: stronger dual training, more workplace learning, SETA reform and a more outcomes-driven National Skills Fund. A return of more levy money to participating employers was announced as policy direction, while detailed grant-regulation changes remain an implementation process. Mpowerful therefore labels claims as LAW, POLICY, HISTORY or PRACTICE so clients can see what is legally in force versus what is still changing.
This page is educational. The live legal position, current grant regulations and funder rules must be checked for each client and each funding cycle.