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All qualifications and part qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework are public property. Thus the only payment that can be made for them is for service and reproduction. It is illegal to sell this material for profit. If the material is reproduced or quoted, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) should be acknowledged as the source. |
| SOUTH AFRICAN QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY |
| REGISTERED QUALIFICATION: |
| Intermediate Occupational Certificate: Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Small Business Operator |
| SAQA QUAL ID | QUALIFICATION TITLE | |||
| 121158 | Intermediate Occupational Certificate: Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Small Business Operator | |||
| ORIGINATOR | ||||
| Development Quality Partner-EWSETA | ||||
| PRIMARY OR DELEGATED QUALITY ASSURANCE FUNCTIONARY | NQF SUB-FRAMEWORK | |||
| - | OQSF - Occupational Qualifications Sub-framework | |||
| QUALIFICATION TYPE | FIELD | SUBFIELD | ||
| Intermediate Occupational Cert | Field 03 - Business, Commerce and Management Studies | Marketing | ||
| ABET BAND | MINIMUM CREDITS | PRE-2009 NQF LEVEL | NQF LEVEL | QUAL CLASS |
| Undefined | 154 | Not Applicable | NQF Level 03 | Regular-ELOAC |
| REGISTRATION STATUS | SAQA DECISION NUMBER | REGISTRATION START DATE | REGISTRATION END DATE | |
| Registered | EXCO 0820/23 | 2023-11-14 | 2028-11-14 | |
| LAST DATE FOR ENROLMENT | LAST DATE FOR ACHIEVEMENT | |||
| 2029-11-14 | 2032-11-14 | |||
| In all of the tables in this document, both the pre-2009 NQF Level and the NQF Level is shown. In the text (purpose statements, qualification rules, etc), any references to NQF Levels are to the pre-2009 levels unless specifically stated otherwise. |
This qualification does not replace any other qualification and is not replaced by any other qualification. |
| PURPOSE AND RATIONALE OF THE QUALIFICATION |
| The purpose of this qualification is to prepare a learner to function as a Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Small Business Operator.
A WEEE Entrepreneur starts-up and/or operates a small WEEE sector-related business. They collect, sort, containerise, store and prepare WEEE for transport. They also assess the WEEE, dismantle it and sell value fractions of WEEE to properly registered and compliant downstream WEEE facilities for final treatment and processing while paying them for the uptake of any depolluted components that require special final treatment such as incineration or land disposal. A WEEE Entrepreneur also direct hazardous waste to an appropriate and authorised downstream facility or service provider. A qualified learner will be able to: Typical graduate attributes include proficiency, efficiency, and effectiveness in running a WEEE sector-related business or enterprise. Another significant attribute would be an appreciation of the significant level of responsibility involved in collecting, sorting, assessing, and dismantling and depolluting WEEE and determining whether it can be recycled or needs to be disposed of. The massive challenges posed by the accumulation of WEEE and the level of pollution of the environment require people who, through their chosen occupation, will alleviate such problems experienced by society. Rationale: Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) which is listed by the South African government into eight (8) distinct categories and classified as hazardous (unless depolluted) comprises of, inter alia, computers, monitors, printers, white appliances (washing machines, dishwashers, electric stoves etc.) cell phones, televisions, video machines, microwave machines, toasters etc. Recent estimates suggest that at least 415,000 tons of WEEE are generated per annum in South Africa. However, of that, only about 35,000 tons of WEEE finds its way to formally registered recyclers where it is recycled in a legally compliant manner. Research confirmed that a large portion of WEEE generated in South Africa is stored and stockpiled in national and provincial government departments, business entities and households and asset disposal release strategies are currently developed by government to unlock some of these volumes safely now. Disposing of used or non-functioning WEEE has potentially a large negative impact especially if simply landfilled (which has been largely the case in South Africa) because while some types of WEEE are benign certain materials contained within components are toxic and hazardous and can be harmful to human health and the environment if not treated or managed in a compliant manner. It is for that reason that as of 23 August 2021 all disposal of WEEE to landfill has been banned entirely, creating even more pressure to build capacity and skills related to the alternative treatment options for WEEE. On the other hand, with global pressure rising to secure future resources required for Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) manufacturing it is crucial that South Africa builds capacity to facilitate the optimal value extraction from WEEE. Finally, with the introduction of regulation in October 2021 that promotes the Extended Producer Responsibility principle, parties grouped under 'producer' are now obligated to finance the management and take back of WEEE and ensure that funds are used to also facilitate job creation in the informal waste sector integration. The solution lies in recycling and recovery of WEEE for the purpose of refurbishment or materials recycling rather than any disposal. This involves collecting and sorting WEEE, preparing it for transport it to recycling facilities where it can be tested for functionality, dismantled, depolluted, and prepared either for further downstream recovery of materials or any other required form of final treatment including disposal (but only of the WEEE recycling residuals). It is against this background that, the proposed qualification scope will create the possibility of WEEE Entrepreneurs emerging as Small, Medium, and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMME). These SMMEs will promote a culture of WEEE recovery and recycling and significantly enhance job creation. While WEEE entrepreneurship - at this level - in the rapidly-growing WEEE space has started, the training needs of WEEE entrepreneurs will have to be addressed in a formal qualification. WEEE entrepreneurs will have to be trained to recover and recycle the ever-growing amount of WEEE generated in South Africa and beyond safely and efficiently. To be successful and adequately skilled WEEE entrepreneurs require the requisite theoretical understanding of WEEE and the practical skills to start their own small business and to create efficiency in the safe, compliant, and financially feasible collection, transportation, testing, dismantling and recycling and authorisation for disposal of WEEE recycling residues. There are four registered qualifications in the waste recycling space - the Occupational Certificate: Collaborative Recycler at NQF Level 2, the Occupational Certificate: Materials Recycler (Paper and Packaging Collector) at NQF Level 3, the Occupational Certificate: Self-employed Re-cycling Materials Collector at NQF Level 1 and the Occupational Certificate: Small Re-cycling Business Owner at NQF Level 3. However, the focus of the four registered qualifications is solely on the paper and packaging sector and not on WEEE, in which equipment such as a PC can contain as much as ten different material types and whose metals can be comprised of up to 37 different elements. The Occupational Certificate: E-Waste Operations Controller at Level 4 has a significant relationship with this qualification and presents an opportunity for vertical articulation. There is also a Higher Certificate in Resource and Waste Management offered by the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). While it addresses waste and resource management, it does not mention WEEE per se nor does it address WEEE entrepreneurship. In essence, considering the size of WEEE generated annually in the country, the critical need for trained WEEE entrepreneurs, collectors and dismantlers created a huge demand for this qualification. And as the WEEE sector grows, the economy will grow and so will the need for skilled employees - the economic and social impact of the WEEE sector will be substantial. Typical learners include school leavers, those collecting and dismantling WEEE but in an informal and untrained manner, and those currently in employment without formal recognition of their competencies. WEEE Entrepreneurs can be employed as WEEE Collectors and Sorters, WEEE Manual Dismantlers and can become self-employed. |
| RECOGNISE PREVIOUS LEARNING? |
| Y |
| QUALIFICATION RULES |
| This qualification is made up of compulsory Knowledge/theory, Practical Skill, and Work Experience modules:
Knowledge Modules: Total number of credits for Knowledge Modules: 41 Practical Skill Modules: Total number of credits for Practical Skill Modules: 56 Work Experience Modules: Total number of credits for Work Experience Modules: 57 |
| EXIT LEVEL OUTCOMES |
| 1. Collect, assess, sort, containerise, store, and prepare WEEE for transport.
2. Test, assess, dismantle, and depollute ICT equipment to determine whether it can be reused, repaired, or refurbished or must be reclassified as WEEE. 3. Test, assess, dismantle, and depollute large and small household appliances (excluding temperature exchange equipment), and consumer electronics and entertainment equipment to determine whether they can be reused, repaired, or refurbished or must be reclassified as WEEE. 4. Operate a WEEE sector-related business. |
| ASSOCIATED ASSESSMENT CRITERIA |
| Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 1:
ELO 1: Collect, assess, sort, containerise, store, and prepare WEEE for transport. Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 2: ELO 2: Test, assess, dismantle, and depollute ICT equipment to determine whether it can be reused, repaired, or refurbished or must be reclassified as WEEE. Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 3: ELO 3: Test, assess, dismantle, and depollute large and small household appliances (excluding temperature exchange equipment), and consumer electronics and entertainment equipment to determine whether they can be reused, repaired, or refurbished or must be reclassified as WEEE. Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit Level Outcome 4: ELO 4: Operate a WEEE sector-related business. Integrated Assessment: Formative Assessment Formative assessments are conducted throughout the training of learners. A range of formal, non-formal, and informal ongoing assessment activities are used to focus on teaching and learning outcomes to improve learner attainment. Formative assessments are conducted continuously by the facilitator to feed into further learning, to identify strengths and weakness, and to ensure the learner's ability to apply knowledge, skills and workplace experience gained. Formative Assessments are conducted by the accredited Skills Development Provider (SDP), and a variety of ongoing assessment methods may be used, for example, quizzes, assignments, tests, scenarios, role play, interviews. Continuous feedback must be provided. Summative Assessment Integrated Assessment involves all the different types of assessment tasks required for a particular qualification, part-qualification, or occupational skills programme, such as written assessment of theory and practical demonstration of competence. To achieve this, the Internal Assessment Criteria (IAC) for all modules as found in the QCTO curriculum document must be followed. An accredited SDP should implement a well-designed, formal, relevant, final internal Summative Assessment strategy for all modules to prepare learners for the EISA. These assessments evaluate learning achievements relating to the achievement of each module of the relevant components of the qualification, part-qualification, or skills programme. Internal Summative Assessments are developed, moderated, and conducted by the SDP at the end of each module or after integration of relevant modules, e.g., applied knowledge tests, workplace tasks, practical demonstrations, simulated tasks/demonstrations, projects, case studies, etc. The results of these final formal summative assessments must be recorded. These results, which include the Statement of Work Experience results, where applicable, contribute to the Statement of Results (SoR) that is a requirement for admission to the EISA. A SoR, using the template provided by the Quality Partner, is issued by the accredited SDP for qualifications and part-qualifications. The SDP must produce a valid Statement of Results for each learner, indicating the result and the date on which the competence in each module, of each component, was achieved. Learners are required to produce this SoR, together with their ID document or alternative ID document, at the point of the EISA. |
| INTERNATIONAL COMPARABILITY |
| An international comparability study is undertaken to identify qualifications like this qualification in terms of scope, cognitive levels, and content of the curricula. In essence, the purpose of this exercise is to compare the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Small Business Operator qualification against comparable qualifications in several countries and international best practice.
As a departure point it needs to be noted that the proposed nature and structure of the qualification is unique to South Africa and by default hard to compare internationally. While there can be a lot of WEEE trainings be found they are almost exclusively developed in the Global North and target the capacitation of the formal work sector. In most of the countries in Africa, more than 90% of all WEEE recycling activities are done by the informal sector. While governments in these African countries 'acknowledge' that WEEE exists, the fact is that typically WEEE is not accommodated in any strategic planning. However, in South Africa as part of the recently introduced Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations there is now a legal requirement for a producer of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) to prove that informal sector integration is taking place. This is done on the back of a legally improved 'Informal Waste Picker Integration' guideline. No other developing country has so far taken such a pro-active social integration and capacitation step. This proposed qualification is ideally placed to facilitate both the necessary gradual transition to WEEE entrepreneurship and to develop skills to enable an individual starting out 'informally' to acquire technical and practical skills while systematically building the required business expertise to eventually launch as a successful WEEE entrepreneur - a term that is unheard of in many of the countries researched. Many countries were investigated, namely, India, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. In Australia and New Zealand, handling or managing WEEE is a small part of larger waste management qualifications, not significant enough to make a comparison. Slovenia has a programme that is used for comparability. While it was extremely challenging to find appropriate qualifications or programmes of institutions in other countries investigated, two international best practice manuals were identified for comparability purposes. It must also be stated that in the examples cited below, the aspects of WEEE dismantling and WEEE entrepreneurship are inextricably linked. Slovenia The Gospodarska zbonica Sloveine (Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia) developed the training programme for WEEE Dismantlers called CIR-ECO Project, co-funded by the Erasmus+Programme of the European Union. The main aim of the CIR-ECO project is to qualify workers that will participate in the repairing, refurbishing, and recycling of discarded equipment in Household Appliance Sector, through the definition of a New Professional Profile, the development of Training Curriculum and training modules and the creation of a Virtual Environment. More importantly, this training introduces the participants to the concept of green entrepreneurship as one of the main engines towards a circular economy model. They will go through a set of learning scenarios during which the general competence of entrepreneurship is put forward. In each scenario, there is an additional and important focus set on green entrepreneurship. The participants have to identify whether or not a household appliance is eligible for repairing/ refurbishing or if it should be dismantled. If a household appliance can no longer be repaired, it must be dismantled so that the components end up in the circular economy. The training is structured as follows: The entire training entails 228 hours. Similarities This course overlaps extensively with the South African qualification. This training programme covers both the aspect of dismantling household appliances and refurbishing them with a view to developing and sustaining a small business (green entrepreneurship). Differences The South African qualification does not include repairing and refurbishing household appliances. However, it is much more comprehensive and longer in duration, includes practical training and work experience training. The entrepreneurship aspect in the South African qualification is based on collection of WEEE and selling it to WEEE facilities or collecting and dismantling WEEE with a view to selling the usable components to downstream processes and/or sending disposable WEEE to appropriate facilities. International Best Practice Programme: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Learning for Nature, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), offers the Green Entrepreneurship (2022) course which offers a step-by-step framework for transforming a green business idea into a viable business plan. It will provide the tools needed to generate, test, and refine an idea for a green business, together with successful examples of green entrepreneurs' paths from business ideas to value-generating, market-fit solutions. It is a 6-week online course. Course highlights and outcomes: Learning objectives By the time the course is completed, learners will be able to: Course topics The course will cover the following topics: Similarities The above programme is focussed on entrepreneurship within the green space. It overlaps with the South African qualification in terms of developing a business idea and identifying customers and stakeholders in the green space. Differences The business component of the international programme envisages a more sophisticated commercial set-up, and the training of the business component is at a higher NQF level than that of the South African qualification, which is an entry-level in WEEE entrepreneurship. Conclusion An analysis of the Slovenian qualification and the Green Entrepreneurship (2022) [a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)] shows a significant level of similarities in many respects with the South African qualification. ARTICULATION OPTIONS This qualification allows possibilities for both vertical, horizontal and diagonal articulation. Horizontal Articulation: Vertical Articulation: Diagonal |
| NOTES |
| Qualifying for External Assessment:
The Quality Partner is responsible for the management, conduct and implementation of the External Integrated Summative Assessment (EISA), in accordance with QCTO set standards. Competence in the EISA is a requirement for certificating a learner. For entrance into the EISA, the learner requires a valid Statement of Results issued by the accredited institution indicating: The attainment of all modules for the Knowledge, Practical and Work Experience modules. OR The attainment of all modules for the Knowledge and Application Components OR De-centralised Final Integrated Supervised Assessment (FISA) for Skills Programmes. The FISA is de-centralised, and the assessment standards set by the QCTO must be implemented by the accredited SDP in the development, moderation, and implementation of all FISA for Skills Programmes. The accredited SDP manages and conducts the FISA and submits learner results for QCTO approval for certification, according to QCTO required compliance standards. For entrance into the FISA, the learner must have completed the Skills Programme successfully and be found competent in all modules, recorded internally by the SDP. Additional Legal or Physical Entry Requirements: Criteria for the Accreditation of Providers: Accreditation of providers will be done against the criteria as reflected in the relevant curriculum on the QCTO website. The curriculum title and code are: Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Small Business Operator 524901-001-00-00. Encompassed Trades Assessment Quality Partner: RELATED PART-QUALIFICATIONS |
| LEARNING PROGRAMMES RECORDED AGAINST THIS QUALIFICATION: |
| NONE |
| PROVIDERS CURRENTLY ACCREDITED TO OFFER THIS QUALIFICATION: |
| This information shows the current accreditations (i.e. those not past their accreditation end dates), and is the most complete record available to SAQA as of today. Some Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionaries have a lag in their recording systems for provider accreditation, in turn leading to a lag in notifying SAQA of all the providers that they have accredited to offer qualifications and unit standards, as well as any extensions to accreditation end dates. The relevant Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionary should be notified if a record appears to be missing from here. |
| NONE |
| All qualifications and part qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework are public property. Thus the only payment that can be made for them is for service and reproduction. It is illegal to sell this material for profit. If the material is reproduced or quoted, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) should be acknowledged as the source. |