The Purpose of this qualification may be stated as:
To develop learners with the requisite competencies against the skills profile for the systems support career path (The overarching aim being to develop a broader base of skilled ICT professionals to underpin economic growth)
The qualification may be acquired in the traditional way of formal study as well as in the workplace, through learnerships. Acquiring the qualification through learnerships has the potential of addressing the problems of the past, where newly qualified people getting into the industry struggled to get employment, because they were required to have practical experience. The workplace experience can now be gained while acquiring the qualification through the various learnership schemes that are planning to use this qualification.
A qualifying learner at this level will be a well-rounded IT professional building on foundational technical skills acquired at NQF level 4, via the National Certificate in IT Technical Support or equivalent. This qualification is expanding the Specialisation started at NQF level 4 into the core field of networking and support, with further Specialisation (s) into IT Support fields or in any other related vertical or enabled markets.
