Guides & Tutorials
Step-by-step tutorials to help you get the most out of skillSYMS. From getting started to advanced workflows.
Getting Started
Begin your skillSYMS journey
skillSYMS Platform Overview
Understand how skillSYMS is organised — roles, portals, navigation, and multi-tenancy — before you dive into the role-specific guides.
Getting Started as a Training Provider
Complete guide to setting up your training provider account and onboarding your first learners to skillSYMS.
Getting Started as an Employer
Set up workplace skills programmes and learnerships using skillSYMS for your organization.
Getting Started as a Learner
Activate your account, find your programme, and learn how to submit evidence, check attendance, and view your results on skillSYMS.
Getting Started as a Facilitator
Set up your facilitator account and learn to manage classes, take attendance, share materials, and track learner progress in skillSYMS.
Getting Started as an Assessor
Set up your assessor account and learn to work your assessment queue, review Portfolios of Evidence, and record competency decisions in skillSYMS.
Getting Started as a Moderator
Set up your moderator account and learn to run sampling, verify assessment decisions, and produce moderation reports in skillSYMS.
Mobile App: Getting Started
Install the skillSYMS mobile app, sign in, and use it for evidence capture, attendance, timeclock, and offline field work.
Complete Your Organisation Profile & Accreditations
Finish setting up your provider after signup—organisation details, QCTO configuration, and multi-accreditation records.
Getting started with the Library
Set up your catalogue, add copies, and start issuing and returning items in minutes.
Getting started with Academic Integrity
Run your first originality check, read a similarity report, and understand the risk bands.
Workflows
Day-to-day processes and tasks
Assessor & Moderator Workflow
Complete guide to conducting assessments and moderations in skillSYMS.
Learner PoE Submission Guide
How learners can submit evidence, track progress, and manage their digital portfolio in skillSYMS.
Issuing, returning, and renewing items
Run the circulation desk: eligibility checks, overdue fines, reservations, and renewals.
Using the learner library
Search the catalogue, reserve a resource, and manage your loans, renewals, and fines.
Handling a plagiarism case
From a high-similarity flag to lecturer review, moderator oversight, and a fair, defensible outcome.
Managing Learners
Add learners individually or by bulk CSV import, maintain learner profiles, and track lifecycle status from enrolment to completion.
Learner Accounts & Logins
Provision learner login accounts, set or reset passwords, email reset links, use audited login-as, and issue learner ID cards.
Enrolments
Enrol learners into programmes and offerings, manage and bulk enrol cohorts, and import enrolments from a SIMS registry.
Alumni Management
Track your alumni community, run engagement and employment surveys, and verify alumni credentials from the Alumni Network dashboard.
Browse the QCTO Catalogue & Link a Qualification
Search the official QCTO catalogue of occupational qualifications, learnerships and skills programmes, then link a qualification to your provider's programmes.
Create a Programme
Create a deliverable programme in skillSYMS — from an offering or by manual entry — and capture SAQA ID, NQF level, credits and duration, including custom programmes.
Create Offerings & Intakes
Turn a QCTO catalogue qualification into an offering, then configure delivery mode, sites, pricing and intake dates for your cohorts.
Curriculum Design & Module Allocation
Use the curriculum workspace to review a programme's KM/PM/WM modules, allocate modules to cohorts and learners, and sequence delivery.
Attendance Sessions: Create, Record & Verify Presence
Set up class, practical, and exam attendance sessions, choose check-in methods (manual, QR, geo-fence), and let learners and staff check themselves in.
Geo-Fencing: Location-Verified Check-In
Set up geo-fences for your venues and enable location-verified attendance for learners and staff, including how check-in validates a person's position.
Calendar & Events: Scheduling, Deadlines & Subscriptions
Manage your training calendar—create events, track compliance deadlines, detect conflicts, and subscribe to your schedule from Google, Outlook, or Apple Calendar.
Tracking Evidence Coverage
Use the Curriculum Coverage report to see which outcomes have sufficient evidence and whether a learner is ready for a Statement of Results.
Assessment Instruments, Plans & Events
Design QCTO-aligned assessment instruments and rubrics, build assessment plans, and schedule assessment events in skillSYMS.
Recording Competency Decisions
Record Competent and Not Yet Competent outcomes, score criteria, and submit audit-ready assessment results in skillSYMS.
Moderation Sampling & Verification
Build sampling plans, execute internal and external moderation, and record verification outcomes in skillSYMS.
ICASS Cycles & Mark Capture
Set up ICASS assessment cycles, capture and bulk-upload marks, and track attendance and term marks in skillSYMS.
Trade Test Management
Manage trade tests end-to-end in skillSYMS: applications, bookings, sessions, results, moderation, appeals, and centres.
Certificates & Verification
Design certificate templates, issue certificates, and let anyone verify a certificate or student card publicly in skillSYMS.
Finance Module: Billing, Payments & Ledger
Run your training provider's finances in skillSYMS — invoicing, payments, collections, the general ledger, point of sale, procurement, and wallets.
HR Module: Staff, Credentials & Lifecycle
Manage your training provider's people in skillSYMS — staff directory, credentials, contracts, leave, performance reviews, departments, and offboarding.
Timeclock & Payroll
Track staff hours and run payroll in skillSYMS — clock in and out, approve exceptions, manage timesheets, run pay periods, and distribute payslips.
Communications & Broadcasts
Reach learners and staff at scale in skillSYMS — send SMS and email broadcasts, build reusable templates, schedule messages, and configure channel settings.
CRM: Accounts, Pipelines & Tickets
Manage relationships in skillSYMS — accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, pipelines, tasks, support tickets, and the CRM intelligence views.
Live Sessions: Virtual Classrooms
Run virtual classrooms in skillSYMS — create and schedule rooms, share join links, join live sessions, capture attendance evidence, and track usage.
Forms Builder
Design and publish forms in skillSYMS — build multi-page forms with fields and rules, share public links, and review submissions.
Work Products & Submission Packs
Compile guided QCTO work product packs in skillSYMS — choose a pack, follow the wizard, attach required evidence, and submit a complete bundle.
Webinars: Management & Registration
Run marketing webinars in skillSYMS — create and edit webinars, manage registrations and attendees, and publish public registration and replay pages.
Academy & SOPs
Train your team and learners inside skillSYMS — manage in-app Academy modules, publish standard operating procedures, and track progress and certificates.
Tenant Management
Create, configure, and manage tenants on the skillSYMS platform, including onboarding requests, suspension, and per-tenant settings.
User Management & Role-Based Access Control
Manage platform users, send invitations, and configure roles and the permissions matrix (RBAC) across skillSYMS tenants.
Billing & Subscriptions
Manage platform billing on skillSYMS: subscriptions, invoices, payment verification, quotes, plan pricing, and billing automation.
Feature Flags & System Settings
Configure platform-wide system settings on skillSYMS: feature flags, email delivery, regions, OAuth social login, and platform diagnostics.
Operations & Monitoring
Monitor platform health on skillSYMS using the ops cockpit: live signals, incidents, background jobs, exports, integration health, and the activity log.
API Keys & Security
Manage API keys, access logs, and security incidents on skillSYMS as a platform administrator, with guidance on revocation and incident triage.
Support Console
Use the skillSYMS support console to find users, start audited impersonation sessions, and enter tenant shadow mode for support and setup work.
Branding: Logos, Colours & Letterheads
Apply your provider's branding across login pages, documents, and the platform theme—logos, colours, letterheads, footers, and signatures.
Custom Domains & Subdomain Login
Connect your own domain or use your free skillSYMS subdomain, configure DNS, and verify ownership for a branded login experience.
Managing Campuses & Delivery Sites
Add and maintain your training campuses—addresses, capacity, head office, and the data QCTO reporting relies on.
Inviting Team Members & Assigning Roles
Invite colleagues to your skillSYMS tenant and assign the right role—from admin to assessor, moderator, and data capturer.
Setting Up Integrations
Connect Moodle, SMS, WhatsApp (chatSYMS), and other external systems to extend your skillSYMS operations.
Building Your Public Microsite
Create and publish a public-facing landing page for your provider—hero, about, programmes, contact, FAQ, and trust sections.
Document & Email Templates
Use QCTO system templates, create your own custom templates, and assign branding so every generated document looks right.
Design-OS: Theme, Components & Certificate Designer
Use Design-OS to control your platform theme, build role-based dashboards, browse components, design certificates, and check accessibility.
Compliance
QCTO and POPIA compliance
Audit Readiness Checklist (QCTO)
Comprehensive checklist to prepare for QCTO external moderation and verification visits.
POPIA-Safe Data Handling for SDPs
Best practices for handling learner personal information in compliance with POPIA.
Generating Statements of Results
Issue Statements of Results from assessment data, run readiness checks, and manage SoR status in skillSYMS.
Audit Trail & Compliance Enforcement
Use the QCTO compliance dashboard, enforcement rules, deadlines, waivers, and the immutable audit log to keep your provider audit-ready.
CHE Accreditation & Programme Design
Manage Council on Higher Education accreditation in skillSYMS: institution profile, self-evaluation reports, governance, policies, review cycles, programme design, and readiness.
NSFAS Funding
Track NSFAS funding status, sync disbursements, and generate evidence packs for NSFAS audits in skillSYMS.
Multi-Campus Accreditation
Register campuses and sites, manage QCTO accreditations, and link accreditations to the campuses they cover in skillSYMS.
SETA Funding
Browse funding windows, submit applications, track funded projects, process stipend claims, and run skills gap analysis in skillSYMS.
Best Practices
Tips for success
Reporting
Exports and reporting
Reporting & Exporting
Generate QCTO MIS exports, compliance reports, and learner data exports from skillSYMS.
Generating QCTO MIS Exports
Step-by-step guide to generating, validating, and downloading QCTO MIS export files (QCTO01–QCTO06) for occupational qualification submissions.
EDLES Exports for DHET
Generate DHET-compliant EDLES exam data files — candidate entries, year marks, and exam marks — using the export wizard, and manage export history.
Report Builder and Prebuilt Reports
Use the Reports dashboard, prebuilt report templates, and the Reports Studio to view metrics and build custom reports in skillSYMS.
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