According to the  QCTO Implementation of Occupational Qualifications by Accredited Skills Development Providers (SDPs), there are different phases of assessment used in occupational qualifications, namely:

• Formative assessments: These are used by the training institutions (Skills Development Providers – SDPs) to facilitate learning.
• Internal formative assessments: These are also done by the SDP by applying internal assessment criteria – standards used to guide learning and evaluating the learner’s achievements and / or assessing competence.
• Internal Summative assessments: These take place at the conclusion of a module / integration of modules to assess the learning that has occurred. This leads to the Statement of Results (SoRs) that SDPs submit to QCTO.
• The External Integrated Summative Assessment (EISA) which is managed by the qualification’s Quality Partner (QP) / Assessment Quality Partner (AQP) that was appointed by QCTO. EISA is the external assessment that all learners have to do after successfully completing their internal training and internal assessments at their training institutions (SDPs), in order to qualify for QCTO’s occupational certificate. More information could be obtained here:  QCTO EISA brochure; and the EISA appeals procedures can be accessed here:  EISA Appeal Procedures.

QCTO appointed the HWSETA as the Quality Partner for the two ministry qualifications on the occupational subframework (SAQA IDs  101997 and  101571). ACRP was sub-contracted by the HWSETA to manage the EISA as part of a shared AQP function. More information on the functions of an AQP can be found in the  QCTO policy document on AQPs.