The tourist guide qualifications in South Africa are set to change, after all the current qualifications expired on June 30.

There is currently a roll-over period for accepting new entrants after June 30, which has created  a significant barrier for tourist guides in the country to obtain the necessary qualifications, according to the South African Adventure Industry Association (SAAIA)

The Department of Tourism recently hosted four mapping sessions together with the Culture, Art, Tourism, Hospitality, and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority (CATHSSETA), alongside industry representatives, where the potential new qualifications were discussed and ideals were mapped out.

This was completed for the ‘Nature Guide Qualification’, the ‘Culture Guide Qualification’, and the ‘Adventure Guide Qualification’.

“Because of the informal nature of these discussions, a lot of informal talking and brainstorming takes place, so we need to wait for the final report before we can give comments from the sector via our various representative structures,” SAAIA said in a statement.

The formal Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) qualification development process will be done in conjunction with CATHSSETA which will be responsible for appointing a facilitator to develop the formal occupational certificates, part qualifications, or skills programmes.

“The SAAIA strives to ensure that adventure tourist guides are represented alongside their specialisations and that the workplace is adequately represented as well to ensure a realistic approach to these qualifications are taken,” the statement continued.

There is broad consensus from both industry and government that this process must result in a qualification that achieves the following aims:

• Provide a simple and clear career path for tourist guides, with a widely accessible entry level and the opportunity to specialise and add skills and knowledge.
• Be an enabler rather than a barrier to entry.
• Enable portability of qualifications – this means that guides who move between disciplines or areas of specialisation can receive credit for the work done and not have to start from scratch like they currently do.

In order to be a legal tourist guide in South Africa, guides have to receive guide training from a CATHSSETA-accredited training provider, where they would normally need to log hours, be assessed, and then present these (with a valid first aid certificate) to the relevant provincial department of tourism Registrar’s Office to be registered and to obtain their legal tourist guiding card.

Jessi Sunkel, SAAIA Executive Director told Tourism Update that currently, the provincial department of tourism’s registrars have been limiting guides to provinces and provincial sites only, and that there is a need to broaden this to rather encompass their qualifications on a national level.

“What is currently happening is not constitutional, although widely practiced. With this new qualification they are hoping to eliminate this completely. In adventure guiding, although the current qualification is called the Generic Adventure Site Guide qualification, the qualifications never limit you to a specific area, rather they limit you to a specific specialisation or scope or activity,” she said.

Sunkel added that the SAAIA has also been working with other bodies for the QCTO to accept the current expired qualifications as historical qualifications.

“This will ensure that the industry does not collapse. If guides are required to redo their qualifications, even for recognition of prior learning (RPL) into these new qualifications, we will most definitely see a rise in illegal guiding,” Sunkel concluded.

The last date for enrolment onto the tourist guide qualifications is June 30, 2024, and all students have until June 30, 2027 to achieve these qualifications (as long as they enrol before June 30, 2024).