Employers want to hire people who are competent. If you complete a course and achieve a certificate of competence that was issued by an accredited training organisation, a potential employer can be assured that you really do have the skill claimed on the certificate. They know this because if the organisation that issued the certificate is accredited, that means they have met certain standards in the level of training and assessment conducted there.
If, on the other hand, you present a certificate of attendance backed by a provider who is not accredited, or for a course a provider is not accredited for, this does not assure the potential employer that you have achieved that skill. A certificate of attendance means you attended the course, nothing more. There is no evidence that you learned anything in the course at all; there is no proof of outcomes. Maybe you did gain a skill, maybe slept in class. With a certificate of attendance there is no real evidence that learning took place. There is no real proof of outcomes.
Potential employers are not the only parties you might present a certificate of education to. You might also present a certificate to another training organisation such as a university or college to prove competency in a certain skill they require from you before enrolling. The same applies as with a potential employer. For anyone to properly recognise your certificate they will need assurance that you did really achieve the skill and that you provided evidence of that. And for that you need a certificate of competence backed by an accredited training organisation.
While SETA-accredited training is not the only type of accredited training there is, it is on the NQF (national qualifications framework) and that is worth something in South Africa and abroad because it is worth credits. Credits, in short, are like education currency.
