The South Africa Qualifications Authority (SAQA) will be working with UNESCO on the piloting of the newly developed digital World Reference Levels (WRL) tool. Following extensive field-testing in several countries, including South Africa, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, a prototype of the digital WRL tool is now ready to be piloted by a range of partner organisations, including SAQA.

A briefing session on the use of the tool took place In Pretoria at SAQA Headquarters on 26 June 2019. The session provided an opportunity for UNESCO experts to demonstrate the tool to SAQA staff working on the recognition of qualifications and credentials including foreign qualifications. SAQA experts will be using the WRL tool in the next few months in the context of their work. The feedback they will provide at the end of the piloting period will provide valuable information to the UNESCO experts developing the tool both on its technical aspects but also on its usefulness in facilitating the tasks related to the recognition of qualifications.

In partnership with regional and global organisations, UNESCO has worked since 2014 towards developing the WRL tool as a response to the recommendation by the Shanghai Consensus 2012: ‘To identify a set of world reference levels, to facilitate the international comparison and recognition of TVET qualifications’. The aim of the WRL tool is to function as a credible translation mechanism for transparency of qualifications across borders. The tool will contribute to the development of regional qualification frameworks and standardise the way in which learning outcomes, qualifications and credentials are described across the world.