FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)
General FAQs
The NSF's frequently asked questions.
The NSF is established as a Schedule 3A public entity that provides funding for skills development initiatives that are identified by the National Skills Development Plan (NSDP) 2030 as national priorities, and/or are related to the achievement of the Skills Development Act, 1998 (Act 97 of 1998) (SDA), and/or considered to be an activity undertaken by the Minister of Higher Education, to achieve a standard of good practice in terms of skills development.
The NSF is funded through the skills development levy fund, with specific focus on providing funding for bursaries and scholarships in scarce and priority skills, learnerships and skills programmes, and workplace-based learning as well as supporting capacity-building, skills infrastructure, research and innovation towards realising an improved post-school, education and training (PSET) system.
The NSF receives 20% of the skills development levy and interest earned on investments held at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).
- Skills development levies collected and transferred to the NSF, in terms of the Skills Development Levies Act, 1999 (Act 9 of 1999) (SDL) in respect of those employers or sectors for which there is no sector education and training authority (SETA)
- Money appropriated by Parliament for the NSF
- Donations to the NSF
- Money received from any other source
- The NSF funds projects identified in the National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) III as national priorities or for such other projects related to the achievement of the purposes of the Skills Development Act, 1998 (Act 97 of 1998) (SDA) as determined by the Director-General of Higher Education, who is the accounting officer of the National Skills Fund (NSF).
- The National Skills Development Plan (NSDP) 2030, the current skills strategy in the 2020–2025 strategic period, affirms the NSF’s scope to direct funding towards improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the skills system, while building on the NSDS III implemented from 2011 to 2019.
- Artisan development projects;
- Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) college projects;
- Community Education and Training (CET) college projects;
- Work Integrated Learning (WIL) projects;
- State- Owned Entities/ Companies (SOE/C) projects;
- Bursary Schemes (Can also be sub-divided into NSFAS Bursary Schemes, NRF Bursary Schemes, NIHSS Bursary Schemes and International Scholarships);
- Post School Education and Training (PSET) development and capacity building projects (DHET projects);
- Skills infrastructure development projects;
- Rural development projects;
- Worker education projects;
- National Skills Authority (NSA) Constituency Capacity Building and Advocacy (CCBA) projects;
- Skills development projects for people with disabilities;
- Centres of Specialisation projects;
- National Government programmes;
- Agriparks / Agricultural projects;
- Oceans economy projects;
- Digital economy / 4IR projects;
- Green economy projects;
- Provincial projects, implemented in partnerships with Offices of the Premiers;
- Municipal district projects;
- Research innovation and advocacy projects etc.
The NSF uses a combination of approaches to invite applications for skills development from eligible applicants in terms of approved grant criteria. Those overall approaches are the following:
- Proactive / Interventionist Approach- enables creative and innovative approaches towards skills development.
- Reactive Approach – follows either the solicited or unsolicited funding process either through Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) or Request For Proposal (RFP)
- Solicited- use either REOI or RFP and requires that all accredited SDP are eligible to apply for funding to implement skills development interventions.
- Open Call- the NSF publishes an REOI or RFP publicly in the media (e.g. advertisement in newspapers) and invites expressions of interests.
- Closed Call- the NSF targets specific partners or stakeholders and invites skills development proposals only from them. e.g. CCBA, HRDCSA, TVET Colleges, Universities, Quality Councils.
- National- interventions or programmes which support national priorities. e.g. Government departments & State-Owned Entities- EPWP, CWP, Working for Water Programmes, etc
- Regional- interventions are informed by the needs in the region (Provincial Growth & Development Strategy
- Expression of Interest (EOI) Approach- the NSF issues a Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) and allows for the skills development community to submit; &
- Programmatic Funding Approach – with additional funding being awarded to SDPs who have open ended programmatic contracts with the NSF.
- Provincial governments
- National governments
- SETAs
- Accredited Skills Development Providers (SDPs)
- Professional Bodies – to support WIL projects
- State-Owned Entities/ Companies
Ineligible Applicants
- Individual/person
- Non-accredited Skills Development Providers.
- Support for implementation of Provincial government growth & development strategies and National priorities.
- Relate to more distinct NSF Funding Windows plans.
- Appropriate implementation experience and capacity.
- Robust governance, monitoring and evaluation systems.
- Consideration to meet NSDS, NSDP, ERRP, NDP targets
- Where relevant, demonstrate support and endorsement by relevant stakeholders (National government departments, SETAs, QCTO, Stakeholder community, beneficiary community, etc).
- The NSF may also use its own discretion in terms of other designated groups that may be proposed.
NB: All applications submitted to the NSF to request funding are subjected to the NSF funding criteria and evaluation processes as per the funding window plans.
All Enquiries can be addressed to: