South Africa has not met industry skills needs sufficiently and as a result, this programme has been introduced through legislation to further incentivise companies that do train in identified National Skills Priority areas.

PIVOTAL is an acronym for Professional, Vocational, Technical and Academic Learning programmes leading to qualifications or part qualifications. All companies submitting Mandatory Grants must also consider training in the PIVOTAL programmes categories as the National Funding Regulations allow SETAs to provide more funding on PIVOTAL Programmes than in any other category. In order to be eligible for a PIVOTAL Programme these programmes must be registered on the NQF.

Professional Learning Programmes (PLP) means programmes that lead to designations that are registered by recognized professional bodies on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF)