National Certificate: Business Analysis Support Practice 

Business analysis is a vital instrument within the business environment to ensure that information technology is able to provide effective solutions for business enterprises. The development of business analysts through a suite of qualifications will have a positive impact on the broader economy of South Africa. It will also assist with bringing South Africa inline with international trends and satisfy industry requirements, at the same time bridging the skills gap in the ICT sector.

The qualifying learner will be able to:

• Interact in a business environment.
• Perform activities to assist with requirement specification.
• Provide support on the analysis of the requirements.
• Perform activities to assess that the requirement specifications have been met.

  Rationale:

  This Qualification lays the foundation and provides an entry-level for the development of Business Analysis Qualifications across various sectors and industries. Traditionally business analysts were drawn from senior Information Technology (IT) and business people. This Qualification aims to provide lower level access for learners to develop competencies in order to elicit, analyse, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business processes, policies and information systems. It specifically aims to develop basic business analysis competencies required by junior business analysts in any Information and Communication Technology (ICT) related occupations, particularly those who are currently working in a business systems environment. The Qualification introduces key terms, rules, concepts, principles and practices of business analysis that will enable learners to support business analysis processes and practices. It has also been developed to enable learners to access higher education and provide flexible access to life-long learning.

  This Qualification provides opportunities for learners to specialise in business analysis or achieve such competencies in specialisations such as systems development or systems support. The competencies of business analysis have been identified as a target development area by the ICT sector and the South African government. The demand for this Qualification has also been identified by the National Master Scarce Skills list of South Africa. The Qualification is intended to empower learners to acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and values required to operate confidently as individuals in the South African community and to respond to the challenges of the economic environment and changing world of work. Ultimately, this Qualification is aimed at improving the productivity and efficiency of business analysts within all sectors in South Africa.