NATED is ending.
Here's what replaces it.

What is happening?

For decades, many South African college students studied towards NATED ("Report 191") qualifications: the N4–N6 certificates that, with 18 months of workplace experience, convert into a National N Diploma. The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) is phasing this system out nationally.

Under DHET Circular TC 0134 (July 2025), new enrolments into N4–N6 programmes are ending on a staggered timetable through 2026–2027, and the final N Diploma awards close on 30 June 2029. After that date, the NATED route simply no longer exists for new students.

PASMA's own National N Diploma (Popular Music: Studio Work) is retired from the 2027 offer for exactly this reason, along with the legacy National Certificates in Radio Production and Film & Television Production.

What replaces it? Occupational qualifications.

The successor system is run by the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO). Instead of theory-heavy certificate levels, an occupational qualification is built around a specific job — its curriculum is registered with a code, and every credit maps to what that job actually requires.

Each occupational qualification has three components:

• Knowledge modules — the theory of the craft.
• Practical modules — supervised, hands-on work in real studios and labs.
• Workplace-integrated learning (WIL) — a block of logged hours in a real workplace, near the end of the programme.

Quality of assessment is overseen by an Assessment Quality Partner (AQP) — for media qualifications, that is MICTSETA, the media and ICT sector education and training authority.

The EISA and the Statement of Work Experience

Occupational qualifications end in the External Integrated Summative Assessment (EISA) — a national exit exam. "External" is the important word: the exam is set and quality-assured nationally, not by the college that taught you. A college cannot inflate its own pass marks, which is what makes the certificate portable between employers.

Before you may sit the EISA, you must submit your Statement of Work Experience: the verified log of your workplace hours from the WIL block. This is why occupational qualifications include a real workplace placement — it is a certification requirement, not an optional internship.

What PASMA offers in 2027

PASMA's 2027 intake runs entirely on the new system — three Higher Occupational Certificates at NQF level 5:

• Higher Occupational Certificate: Sound Operator — studios, live sound and broadcast audio.
• Higher Occupational Certificate: Radio and Multimedia Content Practitioner (SAQA 122622) — the successor to the old National Certificate: Radio Production.
• Higher Occupational Certificate: Video, Film and Multimedia Practitioner (SAQA 124900) — the successor to the legacy Film & TV qualification.

Each is an 18-month, full-time programme ending in a workplace block and the EISA. The two new certificates share a related first knowledge-module family with the Sound Operator, which lets first-semester cohorts share a core before splitting into their specialisations.

Already part-way through a NATED programme?

If you hold N4–N6 credits or an unfinished N Diploma elsewhere, the 30 June 2029 sunset applies to final awards — speak to your current institution about completing in time, and to us about how your subjects map onto the occupational qualifications. Recognition of prior learning is assessed case by case.

Questions we haven't answered? WhatsApp admissions — this transition confuses everyone at first, and we'd rather explain it twice than have you guess.