By law, institutions that provide post-school (after Matric) education are supposed to be appropriately registered in South Africa, and the courses they offer, are supposed to be accordingly accredited. But this does not stop some from pretending to be institutions in order to make money out of unsuspecting students who are desperate for a spot in the post-school education.
The post-school education system has got public and private institutions.
The public institutions are the 26 Universities, and 50 TVET Colleges. They are easy to identify and the list can be found on the internet or check this link.
There are many private post-school education providers in South Africa. The easiest way to check whether an institution is appropriately registered is to get the name of the institution, then contact the DHET Call Centre on 0800 87 2222 / callcentre@dhet.gov.za to ask them.
The alternative is a self-service. One day, there will be an easier process to check whether an institution is registered or not. For now (as at January 2020), prospective students can check whether an institution is registered by following this easy 6-step 2-phase process;
- Go to the DHET website, on the menu, on the right, click “Resources”, then on the alphabetical list of 20 links that appears, click “Registers” Or you can click here to go directly to that page;
- On this Registers page, you will see links to 3 different pdf documents that contains the registers of;
-
- Skills Development Providers
- Register of Private Colleges (up to the latest available date, it is updated monthly)
- Register of Private Higher Education Institutions (up to the latest available date, it is updated monthly)
-
- You have to download each of these pdf documents and search in them for the institution that you want to check whether is registered. People who provide this information in this format somehow believe that searching a pdf is a basic skill that everyone who needs this information has;
- Once a pdf document is open, depending on the device you are using there should either be a menu with a search option, or an icon that looks like it has a magnifying glass, that if you click lets you type the name you wish to search for. It will then find the name in the document or inform you that the name was not found.
- The alternative to searching like that would be to search manually through over 500 pages of all 3 documents.
- If you are sure you typed the name of the institution correctly when searching in Step 3 and you did not find the name in all 3 documents, then you can be 90% certain that the institution is not registered. But you need to go through phase 2 of checking to be 100% certain, which is outlined in the next steps.
- Go to the institution and ask them who they are registered with, and possibly show you proof. If they cannot provide you with any proof of registration, then you can be 100% certain that they are a bogus institution.
- However, if they do provide you with proof, most probably of registration/accreditation with one of 21 Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETA) then you need to contact the SETA to confirm that they are really registered with that SETA. If the SETA confirms, then you can be 100% certain that they are accredited to provide training on the specific skill that the SETA accredited them for.
If you do find a registered institution, double check that it is accredited for the qualification you wish to enrol for.
Also note that if the institution was only found in phase 2 (Steps 5 and 6) they might not be offering any qualification, other than a short course certificate.
You are welcome to spread the word or refer others to this page if they need information. Any queries may be directed to the DHET Call Centre on 0800 87 2222.
Hopefully, in the not so distant future, there will be a one-stop portal where a person types the name of the institution, and the result of whether or not the institution is registered will show up.