Page 24 - CAO Annual Report 2023-24
P. 24

 CENTRAL APPLICATIONS OFFICE
 While preparations for the January onslaught, oddly called the January walk-ins, started in October of the preceding year with the receipt from institutions of their January/February plans, it also ushered in the building of the annually reviewed customized January walk-In IVR system and its routing. Preparations of the IVR Workflow and agent scripts were prepared, temporary staff was recruited and training materials prepared and dispatched. In mid-November training started for the CAO and CACH Call Centre agents and for some permanent staff members who were seconded from their designated departments to serve in the three Call Centres with the CACH Call Centre having a separate Institutional Help Desk.
Following the release of the 2023 verified NSC results on 19 January 2024, CAO Digital Walk-ins opened and operated until 29 February 2024. During this period just over 40,000 applicants applied for late placement. A new portal was launched on the CAO website labelled ‘2024 Digital Walk-Ins’ which contained all the information a learner required to apply, complete a Change of Mind (COM), view available programmes, FAQ’s, Digital Walk- Ins Learner Guides and so forth. During this period 17,138 calls were managed by the CAO Call Centre agents. To optimize its functioning server performance was increased twice during January, first by 200% on the 9th January and then again by 400% on the 17th January. This allows for an unlimited number of users concurrently on our website.
Simultaneously and Independently on a separate platform the Central Applications Clearing House (CACH), which is a sub- division of the Central Applications Service (CAS) Project run by the CAO under contract to the DHET, was operating with a separate staffing complement.
For the CACH-2024 cycle, a total of 142 447 online sign-ups were received for the period 26 January 2024 up to 31 March 2024. In addition 278 unplaced candidates were transferred from the CAS Pilot project into CACH. A total of 37 institutions nationally registered for CACH 2024 and were given access to the CACH database. This included 11 public Universities/Universities of Technology, 16 TVET Colleges and 10 Private Colleges. A total of 1,227 offers were made by institutions.
The Institutional Helpdesk was functional from 02 February 2024 to support both public and private PSET institutions and handled all institution requests for assistance regarding access to the CACH system, navigating the online institutional portal for extracting datasets and making offers.
All said, the 2024 entry cycle was a great success, and we started the current cycle with renewed enthusiasm. Through the constant quest for improvement the CAO once again displayed remarkable fortitude to overcome challenges, be innovative and create value for its stakeholders. The culture of commitment, teamwork and service excellence inculcated over the years in the management team and staff enables us to continue delivering an exceptional service to our institutions, applicants, parents, and the country.
  In 2018 we took a leap of faith and changed to the large-scale introduction of digitization. By then staff had become more agile and confident with handling the changes. This process was helped by the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) programmes. Cloud technology helped tap the new technologies.
  22 ANNUAL REPORT 2023/2024
  

























































































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