Did I say UFO Codes ? I meant OFO Codes. The Organising Framework for Occupations is a coded occupational classification system. It is a key tool to which enables the Department of Higher Education and Training to identify report and monitor skills demand and supply in the South African Labour Market.

Let’s explore a few strange concepts:

The OFO code is constructed from the bottom up by:

• Analysing jobs and identifying similarities in terms of tasks and skills
• Categorising similar jobs and occupations
• Classifying these occupations into occupational groups at increasing levels of generality

The OFO adds value to skills development planning and implementation purposes in that it:

• Captures jobs in the form of occupations
• Groups occupations into successively broader categories and hierarchical levels based on similarity, tasks, skills and knowledge.
• Ease of generating legislated reports such as Workplace Skills Plan (WSP) Annual Training Report (ATR) and PIVOTAL plans and reports

You will notice that there are 8 occupational groups:

1. Managers
2. Professionals
3. Technicians & Trade Workers
4. Community & Personal Service Workers
5. Clerical & Administrative Workers
6. Sales Workers
7. Machinery Operators & Drivers
8. Elemantary Workers

Here are some examples of OFO codes as it relates to the food safety industry:

• 121908 – Quality Manager
• 226301 – Food Safety Manager
• 332205 – Sales Rep
• 422601 – Receptionist
• 524401 – Telesales Clerk
• 732101 – Driver
• 832904 – General worker

All SETAs require that each occupation is linked to an OFO Code. Keep close watch on your local SETA's website to see what is out there.