It sometimes happens that you finish matric, go to work, and then decide on a career change years later. Now you find that for certain courses, you needed to obtain specific marks.
Here’s a scenario: You want to enrol at a university to become an accountant. To do this, you will need at least 60% for matric accounting and matric mathematics. You passed matric mathematics with a 60% aggregate, but you only got 50% for accounting. However, you’ve been working as a bookkeeping clerk for the last 5 years, learning quite a bit about real world accounting in the workplace. You’ve also completed a number of short courses in bookkeeping at a distance learning college whilst working. So, you actually know more about accounting than you did when you finished school.
To gain entrance for the course, you have two options:

• You can go back to school or to a college or body that offer matric subjects and do your matric accounting again. Contact your local school, the Matriculation Board, or Umalusi in connection with this.
• You can approach Higher Education South Africa (HESA). Apply for exemption with them by providing a certified copy of your matric certificate, as well as any other qualifications achieved after leaving school. HESA will then evaluate the merits of your request and provide a certificate that recognises your prior learning.