South African Board for People Practices

The statutory quality and standards body for the People Profession

As an internationally recognized profession Human Resources is at the heart of the implementation of the HRD Strategy for South Africa to improve the skills in the country so that people and the economy as a whole produce more and better.

The SABPP was established by the Institute for Personnel Management (IPM) and has fulfilled the function of being the standards and professional registration body for HR since 1982, registering more than 7000 HR professionals, accrediting providers and guarding ethics. Some of the Board’s outputs include Board Papers on HR competencies and HR Profiles, Benchmarking studies, creating a learning path for HR by aligning registration levels to the NQF, a workable RPL system for professional registration, a continued professional development programme launched in 1994, published research and an HR dictionary. SAQA has also accredited the SABPP as the ETQA (Education and Training Quality Assurance body) for human resources.

The Board has kept itself financially viable and stable with careful management and a small infrastructure. The Board thus has a track record of delivering high quality services far cheaper than market rate. When the Board was formed almost 30 years ago, it adopted a basic premise of no discrimination and members of the previously disadvantaged groups were elected to all our Boards since inception. In 1989 a Board examination was introduced to allow talented people without the necessary qualifications a route to professional registration. This examination was terminated when the Board applied for ETQA status with SAQA, as it was indicated that such an activity would jeopardize the granting of the quality assurance function. The overseeing of proper recognition of prior learning practices by providers in the HR field would, however, become an ETQA function.