| Occupational hygiene, as a profession in South Africa, has become a career of choice for many graduates from a range of academic institutions and courses. The Southern African Institute for Occupational Hygiene (SAIOH) is recognised by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) as a Professional Body, with three registered professional designations in Occupational Hygiene. SAIOH’s certification programme is also recognised by the National Accreditation Recognition (NAR) scheme of the International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA). As part of SAIOH’s SAQA recognition and IOHA membership requirements, SAIOH is required to maintain membership certification and progression criteria to set the minimum standard for professional practice in South Africa. The SAIOH Professional Certification Committee (PCC) requires that members must have completed an NQF level 7 or 8 qualification in the field of Occupational Hygiene to apply for upgrading their professional certification level. SAIOH PCC has noted that a wide variety of tertiary qualifications were mentioned on application forms. With no understanding of the curricula covered by these qualifications, the alignment thereof with the required Occupational Hygiene related content cannot be accurately evaluated. SAIOH PCC has therefore included reference to “recognised programmes” in its certification criteria. By recognising a programme, SAIOH PCC declares that, to its knowledge, it contains at least 50% Occupational Hygiene related content as defined by IOHA NAR, or includes the content covered in the OHTA modules, plus sufficient information regarding the skill sets defined in the SAIOH self-assessment tool. The objective is to ensure that members applying for upgrade have completed an academic qualification that covered all topics that may be addressed in assessments, thereby improving knowledge and competency in the occupational hygiene field. Candidates that did not complete a recognised programme will, in addition, need to obtain the International Certificate in Occupational Hygiene (ICertOHTA) offered by the Occupational Hygiene Training Association (OHTA) or the BOHS CertOH. It is important to note that recognition by SAIOH does not constitute endorsement of a programme in general, but merely recognises programmes already identified and offered by tertiary institutions as Occupational Hygiene related degrees. We kindly request that you register your subject content with SAIOH PCC, thus allowing us to recognise the qualification that is being offered by your institution. SAIOH will publish a list of recognised qualifications and the tertiary institutions where it is offered on its website. Herewith, please find the Recognition of Qualification by SAIOH PCC Form which you are requested to complete and email through to lee@saioh.co.za for evaluation by SAIOH PCC.
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