Representatives from educational professional institutions in Seychelles met at the Savoy Resort and Spa on Tuesday to discuss the details of the new Seychelles National Credit Accumulation and Transfer Systems (SNCATS). The document - recently approved by the Seychelles Qualifications Assurance (SQA) board - aimed to support access to education and training and flexibility of learning pathways. For a year, the SQA has been working on the document, which is essentially a tool to facilitate the recognition of credits given in education and training centres. Its aim is to promote the quality and standards of education and training through a system of accreditation, validation and quality assurance. Speaking to the SNA, the SQA chief executive, Fiona Ernesta, explained that the new document is one that takes into account Seychelles' specificities and it includes the policy and the guidelines. «The workshop today is so that those concerned get to understand the document and they will also learn about the elements that we have to train them on on how to use certain aspects of the document,» she said. Following the workshop, SQA will present the document to the Ministry of Education and the Cabinet of Ministers. «By the end of January next year we will go round with our sensitisation programme, as this document touches all the different levels of the population,» said Ernesta. With the implementation of the SNCATS, students will have to learn the process of switching study programmes without having to start from scratch. «As the situation stands now, if a student is following a diploma in business studies at SBSA (Seychelles Business Studies Academy) and they want to go SIAD (Seychelles Institute of Art and Design) and there are certain courses on offer there that I have already completed at SBSA - I still have to repeat those courses,» said Ernesta. With the new SNCATS, learners will no longer have to repeat courses when they switch. To determine whether students are eligible to continue their studies without repeating courses, they will have to assess whether they have similar assessments and credits. Ernesta also explained that for the movement to be possible, the credits should be from recognised institutions. This also applies to those who chose not to complete a course and instead start another one, the other institution they are transferring to may exempt them from re-sitting for those they have already completed. Tertiary education in Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, comprises both university education institutions and non-university tertiary education and training institutions also known as Professional Centres.  Read more