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🚀 Product Updates

Changelog

Keep up with the latest updates to skillSYMS. New features, improvements, and bug fixes.

v2026.09.19 — MicroQuests in the browser, in the app and by email
Added
  • • skillsyms.com/learn: take LearnChat MicroQuests in any browser with buttons instead of chat replies. You get the same quests, wallet, progress and certificates as on WhatsApp
  • • Learn by email: anyone can ask for a personal learning link on skillsyms.com/learn. There's no account and no password, and the link keeps you signed in on that device for 30 days
  • • MicroQuests in the skillSYMS app, for learners and staff (More → MicroQuests): start, pay or use credits, learn step by step, and download your certificate
  • • Give MicroQuests and credits to an email address as well as a WhatsApp number. The person gets an email with a link that opens what you gave them
  • • MicroQuests in the learner portal menu (Programme → Where to read)
Changed
  • • Payment, gift and certificate notices go by email when someone has no WhatsApp number, or when the WhatsApp message could not be sent
  • • The console's Learners tab and lookup accept an email address, and show a masked address for people who learn on the web
Fixed
  • • A MicroQuest an academy gave someone can now be opened even when their number or address is not linked to that academy
v2026.09.17 — Schools & Early Learning (alpha): grades, registers, marks, promotion and SA-SAMS import
Added
  • • Learners → Schools & ECD: set up a school or ECD centre under its provincial department, with grades, classes and subjects for each academic year
  • • Choose your institution type (primary, secondary, combined, independent, ECD centre and more) to switch on the matching pack
  • • Admit, move, transfer out and withdraw learners; a learner who returns is readmitted, and every move stays on their record
  • • Parents and guardians with legal authority, who may collect, and consent; collection restrictions are visible only to authorised staff and every view is recorded
  • • Daily class registers that keep an unsent register in the browser when the connection drops, and show a clash instead of overwriting when two people mark the same learner
  • • Assessment tasks, mark capture and term and final results on the school's active weighting (SBA, PAT and examination), with achievement levels
  • • Promotion and progression: proposed decisions that explain every requirement, overrides with reasons, approval, and rollover into next year
  • • Printable term and final learner reports
  • • SA-SAMS import: upload an exported learner list, check the columns, review possible duplicates, approve, import and see the reconciliation
  • • Data quality checks on the learner register before any statutory return
  • • Regulation Studio for the platform team: education frameworks, curriculum versions and versioned assessment, promotion and data rules
Changed
  • • A learner, parent and teacher are one person record that can hold several roles over the years
Fixed
  • • SA ID numbers of children born this year were read as born in 1926
  • • An SA ID added by hand to a learner record now matches the same ID already on file, so duplicate detection sees it
v2026.09.17 — Schools & Early Learning: learner support, behaviour, governance, ECD development and a guardian portal
Added
  • • My classes: a teacher's registers still to take today, open assessment tasks and which learners need accommodations
  • • Teaching assignments and teaching scope: start by observing captures outside a teacher's classes, then limit teachers to their own classes and subjects
  • • Learner support cases in three support levels, with interventions, referrals, reviews and accommodations; only the people working on a case can open it, and every opening is recorded
  • • Behaviour: merits, demerits and incidents with consequences and a class summary
  • • Governance for the school governing body and committees: members and terms, meetings with quorum, resolutions and actions, declarations of interest and a printable meeting pack
  • • Early learning: development observations across the early learning areas and a development profile per child
  • • ECD to Grade R transition package, shared with guardian consent, that enrols the same child record at the school
  • • Guardian portal: a private link for a parent to see their child's attendance, behaviour, upcoming assessments and released reports
  • • Release term reports to guardians when the school is ready
  • • An absence alert when a learner reaches the school's absence threshold
  • • Offline school registers and mark capture in skillSYMS Desktop, with changes checked against the latest version when they sync
  • • A read-only SA-SAMS agent that inspects a school's SA-SAMS database copy, exports a learner list and stages it for review
v2026.09.17 — The skillSYMS app: exam day, payments, compliance and Get Help Now on your phone
Added
  • • Exam day in the app: see today's sessions, run the readiness check, admit candidates by scanning their permit QR or typing a candidate number, log what happened, and report an irregularity
  • • Exam centre check-in: check candidates in, see who has not arrived, record incidents and capture script counts and seals for each sitting
  • • Mark capture in the app: open your assessment plans, capture marks (with absent and 'written, not marked'), and approve or reject mark amendments
  • • Payments Hub in the app: payment requests with their pay link, QR and EFT reference, transactions, and payout and refund approvals, confirmed with your password
  • • My Work: the approvals and tasks your automations are waiting on you for, with approve, reject and complete, plus runs, exceptions and flows you can pause or resume
  • • Compliance on the move: the Regulatory Sync Centre (submissions, exceptions, inbox, deadlines), QCTO delivery authorisations, EISA readiness per learner, accreditation projects and evidence, and the Professional Council registry and expiry radar
  • • CollegeOS, Academic Time and the Learner Workbench: offerings and subject-combination checks, the current academic period and holidays, learners needing attention and duplicate learners
  • • EDLES in the app: the DHET file register, results per candidate, building entries and year-mark files, and pre-flight checks you can certify before sending
  • • ID cards for staff: search the card register, suspend, report lost, replace or reinstate a card, and scan a card to verify it at the desk or gate
  • • SkillX Exchange for staff: approve, return or suspend educators, review sessions and follow the money
  • • For learners — My ID card: your student card with its verification QR, a time-limited share link, and a way to report it lost or stolen
  • • For learners — Fees & Payments: what you owe, what you have paid, bank transfer references and Pay now
  • • For learners — Get Help Now: ask for help, compare matched tutors, experts and mentors, book and join sessions, rate them, and manage your learning wallet
  • • For learners — Learn on WhatsApp: browse the MicroQuest catalogue by topic and start any quest in WhatsApp with one tap
Changed
  • • The app menu has new Automation and exam sections, and featured cards for My Work, ExamOS, Payments Hub and Regulatory; learners get featured cards for Get Help Now, My ID card and Fees & Payments
  • • The learner Help screen now leads to Get Help Now, the support desk and the published skillSYMS support email and phone number
  • • Setup-heavy work such as flow building, session and centre setup, payment provider setup and regulatory submissions opens on skillsyms.com from an 'Open on web' button
Fixed
  • • Learners can open their own ID card again; the card list was refused for learner accounts
  • • Loading the photo held for your ID card no longer answers 'Card not found'
  • • Approvals and tasks addressed to your role can now be decided, claimed and completed; some showed in My Work but were refused when you acted on them
  • • EDLES in the app now shows your files and results; it previously showed an empty list
v2026.09.13 — skillSYMS Desktop: offline working, kiosk mode and Group Policy
Added
  • • skillSYMS Desktop for Windows (x64, ARM64), macOS (Apple Silicon, Intel) and Linux, from skillsyms.com/download, with release notes and a download checker at /download/verify
  • • Offline Packs (Me → Offline Packs; learners: Work Offline): take your next 36 hours of classes, one session, your own logbook, evidence and timetable, or the logbook entries waiting for your sign-off
  • • Classes in the desktop app: see the lesson plan, take and finalise the register, and submit the teaching journal with no connection
  • • Offline workplace logbook entries (optionally submitted for verification when they sync), evidence capture, and a two-week timetable for learners
  • • Verify in the desktop app: workplace supervisors confirm or return logbook entries on site, recorded when they sync
  • • Settings → Offline Sync: review conflicts where a record changed online while someone worked offline, with both versions and the offline audit history
  • • Settings → Devices: trust, sign out, block, transfer or remotely wipe computers running skillSYMS Desktop, and set the desktop policy
  • • Kiosk mode for shared lab and reception computers: full screen on one page, with the sign-in wiped after a set idle time
  • • Group Policy and Intune template (ADMX/ADML) for organisation, release channel, automatic updates, start at sign-in and kiosk mode, plus policy.json for Mac and Linux
  • • Help → Diagnostics → Send support package: a privacy-filtered report to skillSYMS Support, without documents, learner records, passwords or the computer's name
Changed
  • • Offline changes are signed by the device and chained, and record when they were captured and when they synced
  • • Offline data is encrypted with keys held in the computer's credential store
  • • Desktop updates are signed and roll out in stages
  • • From desktop 1.3.3 the Mac app is signed with skillSYMS's Apple Developer ID and notarised, and Linux AppImage and .rpm packages are GPG-signed; Windows installers are not code-signed yet
Fixed
  • • Sign-in on the Mac app: the security check now completes (1.3.1)
  • • The Mac app no longer freezes behind a keychain access prompt after an update (1.3.2)
v2.0.0 — skillSYMS for iPhone and iPad is on the App Store
Added
  • • skillSYMS 2.0 for iOS is live on the App Store, free, in every country Apple serves — no invite, no TestFlight
  • • Evidence capture from the phone camera, straight onto the learner's Portfolio of Evidence
  • • Offline registers and evidence drafts that sync when signal comes back
  • • Geo-fenced learner clock-in and staff timeclock from the site you are standing on
  • • Role-aware navigation — learners, facilitators, assessors, moderators, employers and admins each get their own set of tabs
Changed
  • • Every download button on the site now points at the App Store instead of TestFlight
  • • App Store links deliberately carry no country segment, so Apple routes each visitor to their own storefront
  • • The learner portal and mobile app module is marked generally available; the caveat now covers Android only
  • • The dashboard 'get the app' banner shows a fresh notice, so a dismissed beta banner does not hide the launch
v2026.08.30 — Page Composer and My Workspace
Added
  • • Page Composer (Design OS → Page Composer): arrange the page your team opens from live blocks, previewed with your real numbers
  • • My Workspace (Operate → Overview): the page Page Composer arranges, with an 'Arrange this page' shortcut for people who can edit it
  • • Blocks for active learners, enrolments, programmes, pending and overdue assessments, completion, attendance, PoE coverage, EISA ready and blocked, Statements of Results ready, incomplete portfolios, missing ID documents and incomplete learner records
  • • Needs attention, Recent activity, Overdue by age and Getting started panels, plus Quick actions and a team Note
  • • Five presets — Executive, Operations, Compliance, Delivery and Getting started
Changed
  • • Workspace changes are staged: save a draft, then publish to everyone in the workspace
  • • Blocks are hidden for people without the permission to see them, and My Workspace says how many were hidden
v2026.08.25 — Staff Academy: role tracks, My Training and Team Training
Added
  • • My Training (Operate → Staff Academy): a training track for each role, made of short quests that send you into the real product to do the work
  • • Tracks for Executive & Principal, Operations Manager, Academic Manager, Administrator & Registry, Finance & Funding, Facilitator & Trainer, Assessor, Moderator, Quality & Compliance, Workplace Supervisor, Sponsor & Funder and Learner
  • • Steps checked against your workspace's records where a record can prove the work was done
  • • A three-question check at the end of every quest, with an explanation after each answer
  • • Verifiable certificates for finished tracks: PDF download and a public verification page showing verified and self-attested steps side by side
  • • Team Training (Operate → Staff Academy): who has started, completed, been certified or is overdue, with track assignment and due dates
  • • My Training for learners in the learner portal and the mobile app
v2026.08.19 — skillSYMS Mail: shared mailboxes
Added
  • • Mail (Operate → Mail): shared mailboxes with a status on every conversation — New, Open, Awaiting internal, Awaiting customer, Resolved
  • • Counters for Unread, Unassigned, Assigned to me, SLA at risk and SLA breached, plus views for each
  • • Response targets (Mail Settings): first-response targets counted in business hours
  • • Mailbox membership as Viewer, Agent or Manager, so people only open the mailboxes they work
  • • Internal notes with @mentions, and a banner when someone else is viewing the same conversation
  • • Mail Templates: draft, review, approve and publish wording; the author cannot approve their own version and staff send only the published one
  • • Time-limited skillSYMS support access grants that expire on their own
Changed
  • • Sending a reply moves a conversation to Awaiting customer; a reply from the sender reopens it
v2026.08.18 — Document Hub and Signature Requests
Added
  • • Signature Requests (Operate → Documents & Signatures): send a PDF from the Document Hub for electronic signature under section 13(2) of the ECT Act
  • • Recipients as Signer, Approver, Witness or Copy only, signed everyone at once or one after another
  • • Signature, initials, text and tick-box fields, with date signed, full name and job title filled in automatically
  • • Login-free signing page: signers draw or type a signature and confirm consent to sign electronically, with an optional access code
  • • Invitation, reminder, completion and decline emails
  • • Status tiles for Total, Draft, Awaiting, Completed, Expiring soon and Overdue
  • • Hash-chained audit trail with Verify audit trail, and a signed PDF with a certificate of completion
  • • Document Hub (Learners → Documents): folders, versions, access grants and expiry dates for compliance documents and contracts
Changed
  • • Documents is no longer a Coming Soon page
v1.0.0
Added
  • • QCTO Global Catalogue with 1,500+ official qualifications, skills programmes, and learnerships
  • • Provider Offerings system to link tenants with catalogue items (accreditation tracking, delivery modes, capacity)
  • • Programme-to-Catalogue linking with auto-enrichment of SAQA ID, NQF level, and credits
  • • Drift Protection to flag programmes when linked catalogue items change
  • • QCTO01 and QCTO02 export enhancements with catalogue enrichment
  • • Strict export modes (registered-only, accredited-only) for compliance control
  • • Health Dashboard for system-wide compliance status at a glance
  • • Compliance Report endpoint for auditor-ready artifacts
  • • SuperAdmin Catalogue Management (CRUD, drift resolution, offerings review)
  • • API key authentication with bcrypt hashing
  • • Comprehensive audit logging for all sensitive operations
Changed
  • • Programme management now supports both catalogue-linked and custom programmes
  • • Export validation includes catalogue enrichment data
  • • Admin dashboard includes catalogue health metrics
Fixed
  • • Export encoding for special characters in learner names
  • • Rate limiting edge cases on high-volume imports
Security
  • • Tenant isolation enforced on all catalogue and export operations
  • • Pagination guards (max 100-200 per request) on all list endpoints
v0.5.0
Added
  • • QCTO02 achievement export support
  • • Statement of Results (SoR) generation with digital signatures
  • • WhatsApp notification integration via ChatSYMS
  • • Bulk CSV import with validation preview
  • • Rate limiting with Redis-backed Durable Objects
Changed
  • • Improved evidence upload progress indicators
  • • Enhanced export validation messages with learner links
  • • Updated assessment recording UI with autosave
Fixed
  • • ID number validation edge case for dates after 2000
  • • Export file encoding issues with special characters
  • • Timezone handling for assessment dates
Security
  • • Upgraded TLS configuration to 1.3 only
  • • Added request signing for inter-service communication
v0.4.0
Added
  • • QCTO01 registration export with validation
  • • Moderation workflow with sampling
  • • Evidence review queue with filters
  • • Audit log viewer for tenant admins
  • • API key management interface
Changed
  • • Redesigned learner profile with tabs
  • • Improved programme configuration wizard
  • • Faster evidence list loading with pagination
Fixed
  • • Evidence upload timeout for large files
  • • Assessment date picker timezone issues
  • • Duplicate notification sending
v0.3.0
Added
  • • Assessment recording with digital signatures
  • • Evidence approval workflow
  • • Programme and module management
  • • User invitation system
  • • Role-based access control
Changed
  • • Improved dashboard with progress charts
  • • Enhanced learner search with filters
  • • Better mobile responsive design
Fixed
  • • File upload progress not showing
  • • Session timeout not redirecting
  • • Missing validation on learner form
Security
  • • Added CSRF protection for forms
  • • Implemented session rotation on privilege change
v0.2.0
Added
  • • Evidence upload with file type validation
  • • Learner portfolio view
  • • Email notifications for key events
  • • Basic reporting dashboard
  • • R2 storage integration
Changed
  • • Improved learner registration form
  • • Updated API response formats
  • • Better error messages
Fixed
  • • SA ID validation for edge cases
  • • Learner list pagination
  • • Date format inconsistencies
v0.1.0
Added
  • • Initial platform release
  • • Multi-tenant architecture with D1 database
  • • Learner registration and management
  • • SA ID number validation
  • • Basic authentication system
  • • API foundation with OpenAPI documentation
  • • Tenant provisioning