PathLensSOUTH AFRICA · CLEARER PATHS. BRIGHTER OPTIONS.
Sales Assistant (General)
OFO Code: 522301
Last checked 7 October 2026
1. Occupation identity
- OFO code
- 522301
- Occupation
- Sales Assistant (General)
- Classification
- OFO 2021
- Major group
- SERVICE AND SALES WORKERS
- Unit group
- 5223 · Shop Sales Assistants
Official description
Shop sales assistants sell a range of goods and services directly to the public or on behalf of retail and wholesale establishments, and explain the functions and qualities of these goods and services.
More official OFO detail
Specialisations: Supermarket Assistant / Worker, Retail Assistant, Swimming Pool Salesperson, Fast Food Assistant / Operator, Food Demonstrator, Pawnbroker, Clothing Sales Assistant, Foodmarket Worker, Counterhand, Shop Assistant, Perishable Sales Worker, Cosmetic Sales Assistant, Telephone Salesperson, Hardware Sales Assistant, Sales Person / Consultant
- Selling goods and services, accepting payment by a variety of payment methods, preparing sales invoices and recording sales using cash registers
- Stacking and displaying goods for sale, and wrapping and packing goods sold
- Assisting with the ongoing management of stock such as product inventories and participating in stock takes
- Demonstrating and explaining to customers the establishment's goods and services
- Determining customer requirements and advising on product range, price, delivery, warranties and product use and care
2. Demand status
Demand evidence unavailable
No approved governed OIHD graph relationship is available on this deployment for this OFO code.
PathLens does not fall back to legacy specimen demand flags when governed evidence is unavailable.
A national demand signal is not a promise of a vacancy in your town.
3. Salary evidence
No approved governed salary observation or sourced snapshot salary record is available for this OFO code yet.
Open remuneration history & calculator →4. Quick EE check
How much might Employment Equity matter in this job context?
Answer three quick questions for a rough read. This is workforce context, not a hiring decision.
Select the employer size and your profile to get a quick read.
5. Qualification
Qualification evidence pending.
Understand NQF levels, institutions & recognition → Build my qualification pathway →No universal statutory professional registration identified for the generic occupation.
6. Study funding
Check all funding options, eligibility & obligations →A funding match will only be shown once a recognised qualification or study route has been identified.
7. Industry, sector and provincial context
National occupation classification. Industry and provincial context are shown only where a separate official source supports the link.
No source-backed modern OFO↔SIC 7 industry link has been ingested for this occupation yet. PathLens does not infer one from the job title.
Browse the official South African industry classification →8. Next steps — official links
9. Decision tools
10. Sources for this page
- DHET Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO 2021) · Ingested · identity spine active
Canonical OFO identity data has been ingested and validated. 1511 occupation records are recorded in the ingest artifact. - DHET Occupations in High Demand · Validated pipeline · graph publication not confirmed
The governed OIHD pipeline is active, but a successful populated graph run is not currently confirmed on this deployment. - Critical Skills List · Monitored · occupation linkage pending
Official migration sources are monitored, but PathLens does not infer visa eligibility or occupation-level eligibility from monitoring alone. - QCTO qualifications and occupational certificates · Candidate staging ready · not published
Qualification staging and human review are implemented; no qualification↔OFO relationship is published without an explicit source identifier or governed human review. - Stats SA Quarterly Labour Force Survey · Acquisition active · no approved evidence on this deployment
Official QLFS artifact discovery is active. Dataset-specific schema, weighting, reliability and review gates remain separate; a discovered artifact or executable estimator does not itself create a public claim. - SETA Sector Skills Plans / hard-to-fill vacancy tables · Partial · explicit source links only
PathLens preserves explicit source-backed SETA/activity links where present and does not infer modern SIC relationships from occupation titles.