The National Artisan Development (INDLELA) Chief Directorate is the primary functionary of the DHET responsible for artisan development in the country. The work of the Chief Directorate is derived from the Skills Development Act 97 of 1998 read with the subsequent amendments, which falls under the control of the Minister of Higher Education and Training in South Africa. Chapter 6A Section 1 (b) states that the Director-General must provide the National Artisan Moderation Body with the personnel and financial resources that are necessary to coordinate artisan development in the Republic.

The National Artisan Development (INDLELA) Chief Directorate is made up of four directorates, the Artisan Development, National Artisan Moderation Body, Career Development (which recently includes the World Skills South Africa project) and Artisan Registration, Assessment and ARPL. The work of the National Artisan Development (INDLELA) Chief Directorate is still in developmental phase with adjustments still being made in order to maximise the effect of a final structure. It therefore follows that the coordination of artisan development functions cannot be the restricted role of the National Artisan Moderation Body. Coordination in the broader sense of artisan development falls within the full ambit of the Chief Directorate National Artisan Development (INDLELA) as expressed above.

At operational level the work carried out by the National Artisan Development (INDLELA) Chief Directorate necessitates the segregation of functions and duties in order to ensure that each Directorate focuses on specific roles and none of the Directorates play both a player and referee function. The National Artisan Development (INDLELA) Chief Directorate will therefore plan, develop, implement, coordinate, monitor and evaluate a single national artisan development system. The core responsibility of the National Artisan Development (INDLELA) Chief Directorate is the coordination of artisan development nationally to achieve a single, common national standard across all economic sectors for artisan development as contemplated in the Skills Development Act. This core role and responsibility includes the sub-roles and responsibilities to develop, implement and manage systems and processes as developed, implemented and managed by the Directorates making up the National Artisan Development (INDLELA) Chief Directorate.

Coordination means that the Chief Directorate: National Artisan Development (INDLELA) must organise the different elements or activities that make up the artisan development system in order to enable them to work together efficiently and effectively. This is done through the development of systems, models, criteria and guidelines, standards, policies and regulations that will guide all role players on how to plan, manage and implement their activities in a harmonised way to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in the artisan development system. The Chief Directorate therefore must quality assure each step of the artisan value chain and through a system of quality control in line with the QCTO quality assurance standards ensure that correctives measures are implemented wherever necessary. Furthermore, coordination presupposes that when it comes to artisan development matters, the Chief Directorate must be the authority on all strategic matters.