National Certificate: Information Technology: Systems Support

PURPOSE AND RATIONALE OF THE QUALIFICATION:

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 QUALIFIED LEARNER WILL BE ABLE TO:

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(s) 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.

SKILLS RATIONALE:

An increasing dissatisfaction of industry employers with the stated lack of ability of the `paper` certified graduates seeking employment in the field of systems support and networking has precipitated a review of the competencies desired by industry.

Three years of research in the sector has revealed the need for entry level candidates who are capable of applying a range of institutionally acquired skills in the workplace, in the field of systems support, in a manner that adds business value.

The stated requirement is for the formation of a new set of skills and competencies, within the specific focus of networking/systems support, contextualised as appropriate for a wide range of related industry sectors.

EXIT LEVEL OUTCOMES:

A learner will be able to:

• Use a logical methodology to troubleshoot the common types of hardware and software problems typically encountered in the day-to-day operations of a department in an organisation.
• Understand the role of technology in the business context.
• Demonstrate basic application support skills
• Demonstrate operating system support skills
• Demonstrate network support skills
• Relate business problems and information technology solutions
• Demonstrate appropriate technical reporting skills
• Demonstrate appropriate customer care in the context of IT support
• Function appropriately in a change management process within a support team
• Demonstrate hardware support skills for server computers
• Demonstrate an understanding of Systems Support contextualised within a selected work area.