SA Estate Agents – An Update on the Education and Training of Estate Agents

The Implementation of the New Educational Dispensation

The Education and Training Department of the Board has concentrated on ensuring the successful implementation of the new educational dispensation for estate agents which came into effect on 15 July 2008. This has necessarily involved extensive meetings with stakeholders, the rendering of assistance and advice to accredited Recognition of Prior Learning centres and assisting in the accreditation of education providers for the two SA Qualifications Authority registered estate agency qualifications, namely, the Further Education and Training Certificate: Real Estate for non-principal estate agents and the National Certificate: Real Estate for principal estate agents.

Study Guide for the Professional Estate Agent: NQF Level 4

The lengthy manuscript containing the study material for the revised NQF Level 4 qualification for non-principal estate agents, which was registered with the SA Qualifications Authority on 28 November 2007, entitled ‘Study Guide for the Professional Estate Agent: NQF Level 4”, has been comprehensively edited by the Board and, it is anticipated, will be available this year for use both by practicing estate agents as well as earners. Every effort will be made to ensure that this extensive, comprehensive and authoritative reference work is as affordably priced as possible especially having regard of the fact that it will be a condition of Board accreditation of both Recognition of Prior Learning centres and training providers alike that the work be prescribed for all learners and/or Recognition of Prior Learning candidates.

Further information pertaining to the Study Guide will be contained in the next issue of Agent while readers who may be interested in obtaining a copy of the Study Guide should communicate with Ms. Molly Musi either by emailing her at [email protected] or telephonically contacting her at 011 731 5663.

The Accreditation of Training Providers

In a concerted endeavour to ensure that as many training providers and Recognition of Prior Learning centres as possible are duly accredited by both the Services SETA and the education providers to enable them, Board, an advance copy of the Study Guide has been made available to more than twenty prospective education providers to enable them, in the first instance, to apply for accreditation with the Services SETA and, thereafter, with the Board. One of the conditions attached to the furnishing of the material was that the prospective education providers should do everything necessary or required by the Services SETA to expedite the accreditation process. The Board is also presently negotiating with a number of educational institutions, all of whom are duly accredited with both UMALUSI, the quality assurance body concerned, and the Department of Education, for the presentation of the Further Education and Training Certificate: Real Estate. The Board is confident, in the circumstances, that there will be sufficient accredited education providers in place to present the non-principal’s qualification for newcomers to the estate agency profession.

Board Accreditation Requirements

The education regulations, of course, require that Recognition of Prior Learning centres should be accredited by the Board before their activities can be recognised. The following accreditation criteria have, in this respect, been approved by the Education and Training Committee of the Board:

The Recognition of Prior Learning centre concerned must:

• Have been duly accredited by the Services SETA;
• Undertake to permit the Board reasonable access for monitoring and verification purposes;
• Prescribe the Study Guide for the Professional Estate Agent: NQF Level 4 for use by all Recognition of Prior Learning candidates;
• Ensure that constituent assessors and moderators comply fully with all SA Qualifications Authority requirements, as prescribed in the relevant qualification, before undertaking the functions concerned; and
• Furnish details to the Board, in the required format, of all candidates who have been registered for Recognition of Prior Learning purposes.

Eight Recognition of Prior Learning centres have thus far been accredited by the Services SETA and appropriate letters of accreditation will, in due course, be issued by the board to all compliant applicants.

Equivalency Matrix

An Equivalency Matrix, for the purpose of granting recognition to relevant qualifications that have previously been obtained by candidates, after a proper assessment of the NQF Level 4 requirements for non-principals estate agents, has been prepared and is presently being updated with an appropriate commentary to assist in its interpretation by Recognition of Prior Learning centres. A similar Equivalency Matrix is being prepared in respect of the NQF Level 5 qualification for principal estate agents and will, hopefully, be released shortly. These documents will also be available for perusal on the Board’s internet website, which may be accessed at www.eaab.org.za

Alternative Study Plans for Principal Estate Agents being investigated

Negotiations have also commenced with the Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) of the University of South Africa (UNISA) pursuant to which it is anticipated that the Fundamental Management Programme (NQF Level 5), which it is anticipated that the Fundamental Management Programme which, is presented by the SBL, will be fully recognised by the Board for the purposes of compliance with the required educational qualification for principal estate agents. The SBL was selected for this purpose having special regard to the fact that it not only has a national footprint and teaches by way of distance learning (supplemented by ten days of residential learning) but that its qualifications are also internationally recognised.

It has been found that principal estate agents are, on the whole receptive to the idea of study through the SBL while the Fundamental Management Programme represents a further meaningful alternative to the other study directions that are available for principal estate agents including the proposed NQF Level 7 qualification for the captains of the estate agency profession.

The latter qualification, which will be most suitable for those principal estate agents functioning at a very strategic level, is presently being considered by the SA Qualifications Authority and, it is hoped, will shortly be finalised for implementation.

Courtesy: Agent – The Official Publication of the Estate Agency Affairs Board

“Redressing the Past, Building the Future and Guiding the Real Estate Business towards Professionalism”