The end of tick-box learnerships? What the QCTO transition means for employers

South African employers are entering a narrow skills development decision window. If SETA-accredited legacy qualifications still form part of your 2026–2029 skills development strategy, learners need to be enrolled by 15 June 2026. Existing learners may still complete through teach-out arrangements until 2029, but the final intake deadline changes the planning conversation now.

For years, SETA-accredited learnerships have played an important role in skills development, B-BBEE planning and workforce pipelines. The change to the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) should therefore not be viewed as a simple criticism of the previous system, but as a structural transition in how occupational learning is designed, implemented and assessed.

Learnerships have long sat inside the compliance function of many South African businesses, tied to B-BBEE targets, annual reporting cycles and budget allocation. That way of thinking is now being challenged by a system that places greater emphasis on whether learning translates into workplace competence.

The country is moving from ‘training for compliance’ to ‘training for actual job competence’.

Since 1 July 2024, all new learner registrations must fall under QCTO-accredited occupational qualifications, while older legacy qualifications are being phased out. For employers, the immediate issue is not only the long-term QCTO shift, but whether existing skills development plans still rely on qualifications that are reaching their final intake window.

This creates a planning risk, particularly for organisations that are still building their skills development strategies around legacy programmes. But the bigger opportunity is to rethink how learning is structured from the start.

QCTO has centralised how occupational qualifications are designed, accredited, assessed and certified, moving the system toward occupation-based training linked to real roles. These qualifications require a structured combination of theory, practical skills and workplace-based learning, meaning the workplace itself becomes part of the training environment.

Assessment has also changed. Final competency is no longer signed off internally, but through a centralised External Integrated Summative Assessment: a national benchmark that tests whether a learner is genuinely work-ready.

“QCTO is forcing a mindset change,” says Verusha Maharaj, managing director of Red & Yellow Creative School of Business. “For a very long time, skills development has often been treated as an administrative requirement. But a learnership only has real value if it builds capability, confidence and workplace readiness.”

“In practice, this means companies can no longer separate training from the realities of work,” she continues. “For example, in digital and marketing roles, where many businesses face skills shortages, learning needs to translate directly into output. A learner studying digital marketing should not only understand theory but be able to run campaigns, interpret analytics and contribute to business objectives. Similarly, programmes in areas like project management, UX design or copywriting require learners to engage with real briefs, deadlines and client expectations.”

That is why corporate partnerships with training providers are becoming more important. Employers increasingly need partners that can support the full learning lifecycle: from identifying business needs and designing the right programme to learner management, delivery, workplace co-ordination, reporting and compliance.

Red & Yellow is a Council on Higher Education–accredited private higher education institution headquartered in Cape Town and a member of Honoris United Universities. Through its corporate division, the school works with organisations undergoing skills transformation, digital evolution and leadership development, particularly where companies need programmes that align to business outcomes, B-BBEE requirements and long-term capability building.

“This is where the conversation needs to move further than signing up for a course,” says Maharaj. “At Red & Yellow, we work closely with organisations to design and manage skills development programmes end-to-end, from defining the right approach and sourcing learners to delivery, reporting and measurable outcomes.”

Training providers must meet stricter accreditation requirements, and in some cases, workplaces themselves need to be approved to host learners. Programme delivery, facilitators and assessment processes are more tightly regulated.

This is having a direct impact on B-BBEE skills development. Legacy programmes are losing recognition for new intakes, part-qualifications offer limited claimable spend, and evidence requirements are increasingly tied to QCTO registration, workplace exposure and learner outcomes.

Many human resources and learning & development teams are still working through what this means in practice.

“Companies need to ask better questions before they start,” adds Maharaj. “What skills do we actually need? Who will mentor the learner? What work will they be exposed to? How will we measure success?”

Companies that adapt early will be better positioned to build meaningful talent pipelines. Those that wait too long may find that compliance alone is no longer enough, and that the real value lies in programmes that support transformation and business performance at the same time.