Everything a South African provider has to run

Multi-campus & multi-provider

Run several campuses, or several providers, without running several systems. Consultants switch between clients from one login.

• · Campuses and delivery sites
• · Workspace switching between providers
• · Role-based access down to the record
• · Per-tenant branding and domains

Attendance & geo-verified clock-in

Learners clock in from the workplace, not from the couch. Every check-in carries a location fix, a timestamp and a photo, so the attendance register is evidence rather than assertion.

• · Geo-fenced check-in per workplace site
• · Selfie and GPS captured at clock-in
• · QR-code session registers
• · Attendance register export as PDF, Excel or CSV

Staff Academy & role tracks

Train each person for the job they own. Short quests done in the real product, steps checked against your records, a verifiable certificate, and a Team Training view of who is ready.

• · A track for each role, from Administrator to Assessor
• · Quest steps verified against real records where possible
• · Verifiable certificates showing verified and self-attested steps
• · Team Training: progress, due dates, overdue and certificates

Shared mailboxes (Mail)

Shared inboxes such as admissions@ and accounts@ as a queue: every conversation has a status and a response target, and staff send approved templates.

Gmail, Microsoft 365 and Zoho connections are not built yet. Inbound mail needs the address routed to skillSYMS first.

• · Unassigned, SLA at risk and SLA breached counters
• · Assign a conversation, or a batch of them, from the inbox
• · Response targets counted in business hours
• · Internal notes with @mentions

Learner & programme management

Register learners, manage enrolments, and track progress across every programme you deliver.

• · Bulk CSV import
• · SA ID validation, encrypted at rest
• · Programme and cohort tracking
• · Enrolment status workflow

Learner portal & mobile app

Learners see their own programme, upload evidence from a phone, check attendance, and download a proof of registration or student card without asking your office.

The web learner portal and the iOS app are generally available — skillSYMS is on the App Store worldwide. The Android app is still in open testing on Google Play: join the test first, then install.

• · On the App Store — iPhone and iPad, every country
• · Evidence capture from the camera
• · Proof of registration and student card
• · Works offline and syncs later

Schools & Early Learning

One learner record from ECD to Grade 12. Grades, classes and subjects, SA-SAMS import with duplicate review, guardians, daily registers, SBA/PAT/exam marks, promotion decisions that explain themselves, learner support, governance and a private guardian portal.

Assessment and promotion rule sets are published by the skillSYMS platform team before a school can activate them. Nothing is submitted to DBE, a provincial department or LURITS. Timetabling, extramurals, nutrition, transport and hostel are not included yet.

• · SA-SAMS learner-list import with duplicate review and reconciliation
• · Registers, marks and term/final results on the weighting your school activates
• · Promotion runs with every requirement shown, overrides with reasons
• · Confidential learner support, behaviour, governance and meeting packs

LearnChat MicroQuests

Short lessons of 10 to 30 minutes, taken on WhatsApp, in the browser, in the skillSYMS app or from an emailed learning link. Every channel uses the same wallet, progress and verifiable completion certificate. Academies author their own and give them to people by number or email.

• · Learn on WhatsApp, at skillsyms.com/learn, in the app or from an email link
• · Free MicroQuests, plus paid ones by card, instant EFT or prepaid credits
• · A completion certificate anyone can verify online
• · Give quests, pathways and credits to a WhatsApp number or an email address

Programmes, offerings & curriculum

Map qualifications to knowledge modules, practical skills modules and workplace modules exactly as the QCTO occupational model requires.

• · QCTO qualification catalogue
• · Knowledge, practical and workplace modules
• · Offerings, intakes and cohorts
• · Evidence requirements per module

Timetabling & AutoScheduler

Build the master timetable with the conflict check running while the room is still being chosen, or let the AutoScheduler propose a term and commit it only once every placement has been re-checked against what changed while you read it.

• · Master timetable with live conflict detection
• · AutoScheduler: propose, review, commit
• · Room, equipment and facilitator capacity
• · Blocking conflicts overridden only with a recorded reason

Live classes & virtual classrooms

Run online sessions with attendance captured automatically, and keep the recording as evidence of delivery.

• · Scheduled virtual classrooms
• · Attendance captured from the session
• · Evidence capture during delivery
• · Usage reporting

Learning material & academy

Publish material to learners, track who has opened it, and run your own internal training modules with certificates.

• · Material library and matrix
• · Learner acknowledgement tracking
• · In-app training modules
• · QR-verifiable completion certificates

Assessment & moderation

Record assessment decisions, run a real sampling plan, and keep the moderation trail an ETQA will ask to see.

• · Assessment instruments and rubrics
• · Competency decisions with assessor sign-off
• · Moderation queue and sampling plan
• · Full result history

Academic integrity & originality

Check learner work for originality against your own institutional repository. The matching engine runs inside your tenant, so no learner submission is ever uploaded to a third-party database.

• · Similarity checking against your own corpus
• · Similarity heatmap per submission
• · Case workflow for suspected breaches
• · Learner self-check before submission

Quality management system

Controlled documents with real version approval, and a record of who acknowledged which policy. The part of accreditation that usually lives in a shared folder.

• · Controlled document register
• · Version, approval and publication workflow
• · Read-and-acknowledge tracking
• · Process and RACI registry

Portfolio of Evidence

Digital evidence collection with a provenance chain: where each file came from, who verified it, and which requirement it satisfies.

• · Requirement matrix and sufficiency checking
• · Learner self-upload from a phone
• · Provenance ledger on every file
• · Signed evidence manifest

Workplace logbook & supervisor sign-off

Learners log workplace hours and tasks; the host employer’s supervisor verifies them. Only verified hours count towards the qualification, which is exactly the question an auditor asks.

• · Workplace site and supervisor registry
• · Learner logbook entries against modules
• · Supervisor verification queue
• · Only verified hours count

Higher education compliance

CHE accreditation, DHET reporting, NSFAS funding, ICASS and alumni tracer studies — the statutory load a college or private HEI carries on top of teaching.

• · CHE accreditation and self-evaluation reports
• · DHET and HEMIS reporting
• · NSFAS funding status and evidence packs
• · ICASS assessment plans and mark capture

Audit trail & POPIA

Every action logged with a timestamp and an actor. SA ID numbers are encrypted at rest, hashed for lookup, and masked everywhere they are displayed.

• · Immutable audit log
• · SA ID encryption and masking
• · Data retention and deletion controls
• · Access control per role and record

QCTO, SETMIS & NLRD exports

Generate submission-ready files in the official formats, with validation that catches the errors before the regulator does.

• · QCTO01 through QCTO06
• · SETMIS and NLRD files
• · Field-level validation before submission
• · Export history and re-submission

Statement of Results

Issue Statements of Results through a governed workflow: eligibility and evidence are checked before issuance, and every issued credential lands in a tamper-evident ledger.

• · Eligibility and evidence pre-flight
• · Named issuing authority per credential
• · Corrections, reissue and revocation
• · Tamper-evident issuance ledger

Public credential verification

An employer scans the QR code on a certificate and gets an answer from your system in seconds — without an account, an email, or a phone call to your office.

• · QR code on every issued credential
• · Public verification page, no login
• · Revoked credentials fail closed
• · Shareable verification links

EISA & FISA readiness, sittings and results

Check which learners are ready for the External Integrated Summative Assessment or the Skills Programme FISA, register the candidates, schedule and staff the sittings, and bring the results back against the right enrolment.

• · Readiness check per learner
• · Candidate registration for EISA
• · FISA sittings, assessment packs and exit level outcomes
• · LEISA export

Dashboards & report builder

Prebuilt compliance reports plus a builder for the ones your funder invents halfway through the year.

• · Prebuilt report library
• · Custom report definitions
• · Scheduled delivery by email
• · CSV, Excel and PDF output

Library management

A proper library system for your campus: catalogue, circulation, reservations and fines, with issue and return handled by scanning a barcode on a phone.

• · Catalogue with spine labels
• · Issue, return and renew by barcode scan
• · Reservations and holds
• · Fines and borrower history

HR & staff compliance

Your own people: contracts, leave, timesheets, and the assessor and facilitator registrations that expire quietly and fail an audit loudly.

• · Staff directory and contracts
• · Leave and timesheets
• · Credential and registration expiry tracking
• · Performance reviews and offboarding

South African payroll

Payroll that knows about PAYE, UIF and SDL, run against the same staff records your compliance team already maintains.

• · PAYE, UIF and SDL calculation
• · Payslip generation
• · Time-clock integration
• · Payroll reporting

Workforce skills intelligence

Map what your workforce can actually do against what the roles require, then aim training at the gap instead of at the budget.

Skills mapping and assessment cycles are live; development planning is still being built.

• · Skills genome per role
• · Workforce register and job architecture
• · Assessment cycles and calibration
• · Capability heatmap

Student billing & collections

A running account per learner — charges, payments, sponsor credits and refunds — plus the arrangements, dunning and financial holds that follow when nobody pays.

• · A learner account and statement per learner
• · Payment arrangements and instalments
• · Sponsor accounts and sponsor credits
• · Collections, dunning and financial holds

Accounting & payments

A general ledger that reconciles, wallets, point of sale, procurement and statutory financial reporting.

• · General ledger and trial balance
• · Wallets, payments and refunds
• · Point of sale and procurement
• · P&L, balance sheet and aged debtors

SETA funding & WSP/ATR

Track funding windows, applications and awards, process stipend claims, and pull the numbers your WSP and ATR submissions need.

• · Funder registry and funding windows
• · Applications, awards and MOAs
• · Stipend rules and claims
• · WSP and ATR data

Guided onboarding

A staged onboarding that gets your accreditation scope, campuses, programmes and team in place before anyone touches a learner record.

• · Staged setup with completion gates
• · Accreditation scope capture
• · Evidence vault for your own documents
• · Smoke tests before activation

Document hub & e-signatures

Store controlled documents and get learner agreements, workplace agreements and supervisor sign-offs signed electronically under section 13(2) of the ECT Act. Signers need no account.

An ordinary electronic signature under section 13(2) of the ECT Act, not an advanced one — an advanced signature must be issued by an accredited provider.

• · Document folders, versions and expiry
• · Drag fields onto the page, one colour per signer
• · Reusable templates — place the layout once, send it every week
• · Signature requests with signing order and status tracking

CRM & employer relationships

Track employer partnerships, host-placement agreements and the next cohort’s pipeline against the same records your compliance team uses.

• · Accounts, contacts and timeline
• · Leads, opportunities and pipelines
• · Tasks, tickets and automations
• · Relationship and stakeholder mapping

White-labelling & your own site

Your logo, your colours, your domain — on the portal your learners log into, on the certificates you issue, and on a public microsite you control.

• · Per-tenant colour palette with contrast checking
• · Custom domain and subdomain login
• · Branded documents and certificates
• · Public microsite builder

Page Composer & My Workspace

Put the right work front and centre. Arrange the page your team opens from live blocks — exceptions, readiness and quick actions — preview it with your real numbers, then publish.

• · Live blocks for learners, assessments, EISA readiness and PoE coverage
• · Five presets: Executive, Operations, Compliance, Delivery, Getting started
• · Preview with real data, save drafts, publish when ready
• · Blocks hidden automatically for people without permission

skillSYMS Desktop & offline working

Keep working when the connection drops. Take the register, record workplace logbook entries and capture evidence offline in skillSYMS Desktop, then sync with a signed, time-stamped audit trail.

• · Desktop app for Windows, Mac and Linux with signed updates
• · Offline packs: upcoming classes, one session, or a learner’s logbook and evidence
• · Encrypted on the device; trust, revoke and remote wipe per device
• · Conflicts kept side by side for an administrator to decide

Forms & data capture

Build the application form, the site-visit checklist or the survey yourself, share it publicly, and have the answers land against the right record.

• · Multi-page form builder
• · Conditional rules and automations
• · Public share links with file upload
• · Submissions tied to learner records