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What is merSETA? Meaning and purpose
merSETA stands for the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority. It is one of South Africa’s 21 Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs), set up under the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 to plan and fund skills development for each sector of the economy. merSETA’s sector is manufacturing, engineering and related services. It works out which skills employers in the sector need, and it funds training, learnerships and bursaries to supply them, for people in the sector and for those who want to enter it.
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If you searched for what merSETA stands for or what merSETA does, this page answers both, then explains how training providers are accredited today, how merSETA’s mandatory and discretionary grants work, how learnerships run and who can apply for a merSETA bursary. If you are an employer planning skills programmes or learnerships for staff in management, office or workplace roles, or a learner comparing options, BOTI’s accredited training courses list the QCTO and SETA programmes BOTI is accredited to offer.
Which industries fall under merSETA?
merSETA organises its sector into five chambers, each covering a group of industries:
- Metal and engineering: the full range of businesses in the metal and engineering industries
- Automobile manufacturing
- Motor retail and component manufacturing: including fuel retailers, vehicle dealers, and vehicle repair and service workshops
- New tyre manufacturing
- Plastics: manufacturers of all kinds of plastic products
An employer pays its skills levy to one SETA, the one that matches its main business activity. If you are unsure whether your company falls under merSETA, merSETA can confirm it.
Types of SETA: where merSETA fits
Each of the 21 SETAs serves one sector of the economy, from agriculture and banking to health, mining and transport, and runs the same core system for it: a sector skills plan, levy grants, learnerships and bursaries. All 21 SETAs are licensed until 31 March 2030. In February 2026 the President announced that the SETAs will be rationalised, and in April 2026 the Department of Higher Education and Training said it expected to take options to Cabinet during the 2026/27 financial year. Until a decision is announced, merSETA continues to receive its share of the levy and to run its grants, learnerships and bursaries.
What does merSETA do?
merSETA does not train people itself; like every SETA, it supports training in its sector. Its main functions are to:
- develop a sector skills plan that sets out the skills in demand, the employment and growth trends in the sector, and the priorities for skills development
- run the levy-grant system: mandatory grants for employers who plan and report their training, and discretionary grants for priority programmes
- fund and support learnerships, which build on the apprenticeships of the past, as well as bursaries, internships and skills programmes
- help employers prepare Workplace Skills Plans and put them into practice
- work with the QCTO as one of its Quality Partners, under a signed service level agreement, on the quality of training and assessment in the sector
- develop and replace occupational qualifications and skills programmes for its sector, which the June 2026 Directive on pre-2009 qualifications[1] requires of every SETA
merSETA is a stakeholder body: its accounting authority, the board that takes its main decisions, has equal representation from organised labour and organised employers in the sector. Under the June 2026 Directive[1], SETAs also report quarterly to the Minister, through SAQA, on qualification development, provider accreditation and enrolments.
merSETA accreditation: how training providers are accredited
Searches for merSETA accreditation reflect how accreditation used to work. Under the old system, merSETA ran an Education and Training Quality Assurance body (ETQA) that accredited training providers to offer unit-standard (pre-2009) qualifications in its sector.
That has changed. Training providers that want to offer occupational qualifications, part-qualifications or skills programmes in merSETA’s sector now apply for accreditation directly to the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO), which runs accreditation with its Quality Partners, including the SETAs. QCTO accreditation lasts five years from the date it is granted, and the QCTO can withdraw it. Providers that merSETA accredited for legacy (pre-2009) qualifications keep that accreditation only until each qualification’s teach-out period ends. To offer the replacement occupational qualification, they need QCTO accreditation.
For learners, an occupational qualification ends in the External Integrated Summative Assessment (EISA), a single national assessment at a QCTO-accredited assessment centre, and the QCTO issues the Occupational Certificate. For artisan trades in the metal and motor industries, the QCTO issues the Trade Certificate.
Before choosing a provider for merSETA-funded training, ask for its accreditation letter and check that the exact programme is on its scope, with dates that cover your enrolment.
merSETA funding: the levy and grants
merSETA does not collect the levy itself. Employers pay the Skills Development Levy (SDL), 1% of payroll[2], every month through the South African Revenue Service (SARS), and merSETA receives the share paid by employers in its sector. The levy is split as follows: 20% goes to the National Skills Fund and 80% to the employer’s SETA. Of the total levy, the SETA uses 20% for mandatory grants, 49.5% for discretionary grants and 10% for administration, and 0.5% goes to the QCTO[3]. Employers whose payroll is below the threshold in the Skills Development Levies Act do not pay the levy; SARS can confirm whether yours is exempt.
Mandatory grants
The mandatory grant is 20% of the levy an employer paid[3]. To qualify, an employer must:
- be registered with SARS for the levy, with merSETA as its SETA, and be up to date with levy payments
- submit its Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) and Annual Training Report (ATR) in merSETA’s submission window, which runs from 1 February to 30 April each year[4]
A Skills Development Facilitator (SDF), employed or contracted by the company, usually prepares and submits the WSP and ATR. Mandatory grant money that is not claimed moves into discretionary funding by 15 August each year[3].
Discretionary grants
Discretionary grants fund skills development projects linked to the sector’s priority occupations, the scarce and critical skills in merSETA’s sector skills plan. merSETA publishes a grants policy for each financial year, in line with the SETA Grant Regulations (Government Gazette 35940 of 3 December 2012)[4]. The main target is PIVOTAL programmes: Professional, Vocational, Technical and Academic Learning programmes that lead to qualifications or part-qualifications on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Discretionary grants support programmes such as:
- learnerships
- bursaries
- internships
- work-integrated learning
- skills programmes
merSETA can also fund sector projects, such as research, that do not lead to a qualification. It announces application windows on its website. Discretionary grants are not guaranteed: they depend on merSETA’s priorities for the year, the funds available and approval under its policy.
merSETA learnerships
A learnership is a structured programme that combines theory with practical work in a real workplace and leads to a qualification registered on the NQF. Under the Skills Development Act, a learnership must include a structured learning component and practical work experience, must relate to an occupation, and must lead to a registered qualification.
How do you get a merSETA learnership?
merSETA does not run learnerships itself. Employers in its sector host them, usually with an accredited training provider, and merSETA funds them through its grants. If you are looking for a learnership, apply to the employer or training provider that advertises it, not to merSETA. Current employees and new entrants can both take part, but you must meet the entry requirements of the qualification and the employer’s selection criteria. Learnership adverts commonly ask for:
- a CV with your contact details and references
- certified copies of your ID and of your certificates
- proof of residence
- a matric (Grade 12) certificate, or the level of schooling the qualification requires
Requirements differ by employer and by qualification, so read each advert carefully.
How a learnership works
- The employer’s workplace is approved for the learnership, and qualified assessors are available, in-house or contracted.
- The training provider is accredited for the qualification the learnership is based on; for occupational qualifications, that accreditation comes from the QCTO.
- The employer advertises the learnership, and applicants go through the company’s selection process.
- The learner, the employer and the training provider sign a learnership agreement. If the learner was unemployed, the employer and the learner also sign a fixed-term employment contract for the length of the learnership.
- The learner studies with the provider and works under a mentor at the employer, with regular feedback.
- Assessors carry out formative and summative assessments, and the provider moderates them internally. For occupational qualifications, the final step is the EISA, and the QCTO issues the Occupational Certificate.
- A learner who does not finish receives a statement of results for the parts achieved.
How long a learnership lasts depends on the qualification, and the agreement states the dates. When it ends, the employer may offer the learner a job or another learnership, or the learner can look for work elsewhere with the qualification and experience gained. A learnership is not a promise of a permanent job.
merSETA qualifications
Like other SETAs, merSETA has a set of historically registered (pre-2009) qualifications built from unit standards. These are being replaced by occupational qualifications on the QCTO’s Occupational Qualifications Sub-Framework, a process known as realignment. A SETA can act as the Development Quality Partner, which develops a qualification with experts from the sector; SAQA registers the finished qualification on the NQF, and the QCTO quality-assures the occupational system as a whole. The new system has three types of programme:
- an occupational qualification of 120 credits or more, which ends in the EISA and a QCTO Occupational Certificate
- a part-qualification of fewer than 120 credits, which also ends in an EISA and an Occupational Certificate
- a skills programme of 8 to 60 credits, which the QCTO records on its database and which ends in a Final Integrated Supervised Assessment (FISA)
Legacy qualifications reached their registration end date on 30 June 2023, and extensions have since been granted qualification by qualification. In 2025 the QCTO and SAQA approved enrolment extensions to 30 June 2026 for five merSETA pre-2009 qualifications. The final Directive, gazetted on 17 June 2026[1], then allowed extensions of 6 to 24 months for selected pre-2009 qualifications, as listed by SAQA[5]. Every qualification already awarded remains valid and recorded on the National Learners’ Records Database (NLRD).
Before you enrol, or before an employer budgets for a learnership on a legacy qualification, check the qualification’s record on SAQA’s register for its last date for enrolment and last date for achievement, and ask whether an occupational qualification has replaced it.
merSETA bursary
merSETA bursaries are paid from its discretionary grants. They aim to build the skills the sector is short of and to open study to people from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, in line with the Employment Equity Act. Past bursary calls have covered students at universities and universities of technology in fields such as:
- Mechanical Engineering, including Mechatronics
- Electrical Engineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Industrial Engineering
- Metallurgy and Materials Engineering
- Production and Operations Management
- Polymer Technology
Who can apply for a merSETA bursary?
Past calls have asked that applicants:
- are South African citizens
- have a matric or post-matric certificate, or an equivalent qualification, with good marks in Mathematics and Physical Science
- meet the admission requirements of their university or university of technology
- are studying, or plan to study, in one of the listed fields
- work for a company registered with merSETA, or are unemployed and want to work in merSETA’s sector
Calls have been open to students from their first year of study, and to current students who have passed their courses so far with satisfactory results and cannot continue without funding.
How to apply for a merSETA bursary
Applications have typically needed:
- a certified copy of your ID
- a certified copy of your matric certificate or its equivalent
- a certified copy of your latest tertiary results, if you are already studying
- proof of any other bursary or scholarship
- proof of registration or application at a university or university of technology
Criteria, fields of study, closing dates and the way to apply change from year to year. Read merSETA’s current bursary call on its website before you apply, and apply only through the channel that call gives. A bursary is not guaranteed: awards depend on the funds available.
Frequently asked questions
What does merSETA stand for?
merSETA stands for the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority. It is one of the 21 SETAs set up under the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998, and it covers metal and engineering, automobile manufacturing, motor retail and component manufacturing, new tyre manufacturing, and plastics. Like all SETAs, it is licensed until 31 March 2030.
What does merSETA do?
merSETA does not train people itself. It develops a sector skills plan, runs the levy-grant system of mandatory and discretionary grants, and funds learnerships, bursaries, internships and other PIVOTAL programmes. Under the June 2026 Directive[1], SETAs also remain accountable for developing and replacing occupational qualifications and skills programmes, and they work with the QCTO as Quality Partners under signed service level agreements.
How does merSETA accreditation work?
Training providers that want to offer occupational qualifications, part-qualifications or skills programmes now apply for accreditation directly to the QCTO, which runs the process with its Quality Partners, including the SETAs. QCTO accreditation lasts five years. Providers that a SETA accredited for legacy (pre-2009) qualifications keep that accreditation only until each qualification’s teach-out period ends.
How do I apply for a merSETA learnership?
Apply to the employer or training provider that advertises the learnership, not to merSETA. merSETA funds learnerships, and employers in its sector host them with accredited training providers. You must meet the qualification’s entry requirements and the employer’s selection criteria. A learnership is not a promise of a permanent job.
Who can apply for a merSETA bursary?
Past merSETA bursary calls have been open to South African citizens studying, or planning to study, engineering and related fields that the sector needs, such as mechanical, electrical, chemical and industrial engineering, at a university or university of technology. Applicants could be employed at a company registered with merSETA or unemployed. Criteria change each year, so read merSETA’s current bursary call before you apply.
How does the merSETA mandatory grant work?
Levy-paying employers can claim back 20% of their 1% skills development levy as a mandatory grant[3]. To qualify, they submit a Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report; merSETA’s submission window runs from 1 February to 30 April[4]. Employers must also be up to date with their levy payments, and unclaimed mandatory grant money moves to discretionary funding by 15 August[3].
merSETA’s mandatory grant depends on the Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report reaching it by 30 April[3], and a skills development facilitator usually prepares them. BOTI’s Skills Development Facilitator (SDF) Training Course is for staff taking on that role. It runs in-house at your premises, at BOTI’s venue in Sunningdale, Johannesburg, or online. Call 011 882 8853.
Sources
- Directive on the implementation of transitional arrangements for pre-2009 qualifications (Government Gazette 54858) – Minister of Higher Education and Training, 17 June 2026.
- Skills Development Levy – South African Revenue Service (SARS), 2026.
- Mandatory Grants – Health and Welfare SETA (HWSETA), 2026.
- Grants Policy 2025/26 – merSETA, 2024.
- Pre-2009 Extended Qualifications – South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), June 2026.
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