SAIMC: CPD Licensed Body
To satisfy the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) requirement of being “Appropriately equipped and accessible to CPD Service Providers,” an organization acting as an ECSA CPD Licensed Body must demonstrate it possesses the operational infrastructure, tools, and support systems required to manage the verification and monitoring of training providers.
According to ECSA’s standard ECPD-01-STA (Standard for Continuing Professional Development), fulfilling this criterion requires meeting specific conditions:
Technological Infrastructure & Systems
Online Portals & Databases:
- The SAIMC NPC provides a user-friendly website where external CPD Service Providers can easily log in, submit verification profiles via e-mail, track validation outcomes, and an email address to send event attendance registers.
- Data repositories prevents duplicate verification numbers.
Physical & Administrative Accessibility
- Helpdesk & Personnel: The SAIMC NPC has designated, trained personnel reachable via telephone and email to resolve provider queries regarding applications or system glitches with many years’ experience.
- Published Documents & Clear Guidelines: All evaluation structures, fees, policies, and submission forms are explicitly documented and publicly accessible to applicants without logging in to the website.
Competent Verification & Quality Review Tools
- Assessment Templates & Scorecards: The SAIMC NPC is equipped with standardized evaluation mechanisms to review a provider’s subject-matter relevance, presenter expertise, and overall course delivery method. [1, 2]
- Auditing & Monitoring Capability: The Licensed Body possesses the operational capacity and administrative tools to audit verified providers at least once every three years, ensuring continuous compliance.
Fair and Streamlined Administrative Processes
- Prompt Processing Windows: Administrative structures guarantees that verification reviews or conditional rejections occur within transparent, reasonable timeframes (typically up to 30 working days). [1]
- Appeals Machinery: Accessible avenues, documents, and defined procedures is in place to handle disputes or appeals from rejected or revoked providers.
Appeals Machinery
Should an event organiser feel the need to appeal the assessors decision, the following steps are available:
- Inform the CPD Administrator (ina@saimc.co.za) that the organiser appeals the decision of the assessor
- The Administrator will refer the appeal to the assessor and request reasons for the decision
- Should this not result in an acceptable outcome, the appeal must be referred to the CEO (johan.maartens@saimc.co.za)
- Should the appeal not be resolved satisfactorily, the material and and any funds submitted to the SAIMC will be returned to the event organiser
This appeal process can only be initiated before any events take place. Once an event has taken place, the Appeal Process can no longer be followed.
About the Author
