This year, as the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) marks three decades of stewardship of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), we celebrate important milestones while also looking ahead to the future. The NQF was created to provide clear pathways, to recognise learning wherever it takes place, and to enable mobility between education, training and work. Over 30 years SAQA has strengthened articulation, promoted Recognition of Prior Learning, built robust evaluation systems while also defending the credibility of qualifications. “Thirty years on, the NQF needs to swiftly move from an administrative concept to being a lived advantage for every individual,” says the SAQA Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nadia Starr.