← Layer 3 Cohorts · Specialist Credential
📋 AI Policy Cohort
Write an AI policy your organisation can actually stand behind.
Certified AI Policy Practitioner™
A guided, six-week intensive for the professionals who are handed the task of "sorting out our AI policy" — and given no map. You will leave with a complete, board-ready AI policy written for your organisation, an implementation plan to roll it out, and the judgment to defend every clause in it.
For: Policy analysts · Government advisors · Researchers · Advocacy professionals · Civil servants · Compliance & risk leads
The problem we're fixing. Right now, capable professionals are being told to "write the AI policy" with no framework, no precedent, and no time. So they paste the brief into ChatGPT and ship a document they can't explain, can't defend, and can't implement. A policy nobody understands is worse than no policy — it creates the illusion of governance. This cohort replaces that with real understanding and a real, workable document.
What you'll walk away with
This is not a lecture series. Every week you build one more part of a real AI policy for your own organisation. By the final week you have the finished article — not a certificate that says you watched some videos.
A complete AI policy for your organisation — scope, principles, roles, acceptable use, oversight, procurement and incident response.
A 12-month implementation roadmap — how to get it approved, adopted, trained and monitored.
The judgment to defend it — you can explain every clause, the law behind it, and the trade-offs you made.
A reusable toolkit — templates for the policy, risk register, impact assessment and vendor evaluation.
Command of the landscape — SA instruments and the international frameworks (EU AI Act, AU, OECD, NIST) that shape them.
The Certified AI Policy Practitioner™ credential — assessed by a domain expert against a published rubric.
Built on the Funda Five™ — not on guesswork
A good AI policy answers the same five questions our learners ask of every AI decision — just at the level of a whole organisation. The framework you already trust becomes the backbone of the document you write.
1 · Task
Which uses of AI is this policy actually governing? Scoping the policy to real decisions and real harm, not vague "AI usage".
2 · Data
POPIA, data classification, lawful basis, and what may never be put into a tool. The clauses that keep you out of court.
3 · Tool
Approved vs prohibited tools, procurement standards, and how to evaluate a vendor's AI claims before you sign.
4 · Trust
Risk classification, verification standards, monitoring and audit — how the organisation knows the policy is working.
5 · Human
Accountability lines, human-oversight requirements, sign-off and incident response. Who answers when it goes wrong.
The six weeks — how we hold your hand through it
Each week has a focus, the Funda Five™ lens it sharpens, a live faculty session, and one concrete thing you build toward your own policy. Nothing is left as "go figure it out".
Week 1Foundations & the South African landscape
Focus
Why AI policy is different from IT policy. The DCDT national AI strategy, the Presidential Commission on the 4IR, POPIA & PAIA, sector regulators, and the real gaps in SA's roadmap. Case: the April 2026 AI hallucination incident and what a policy should have prevented.
Funda Five™
Task — scoping what your policy must actually govern.
Live session
Faculty walk-through of the SA instruments + Q&A on your organisation's context.
You build
Policy Charter — your organisation's scope, stakeholders, decision-makers and the harms you're governing against.
Week 2The international frameworks shaping SA
Focus
The EU AI Act risk tiers, the African Union Continental AI Strategy, OECD AI Principles, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, ISO/IEC 42001, and the UK's pro-innovation stance. What to adopt, what to adapt, and what doesn't fit the SA context.
Funda Five™
Tool — matching the right framework to your organisation's reality.
Live session
Comparative clinic — mapping two frameworks onto a live SA use case.
You build
Framework Alignment Matrix — which principles from which frameworks your policy will inherit, and why.
Week 3Risk, data & rights
Focus
POPIA in depth for AI, data classification, lawful basis and retention, and algorithmic impact assessment (AIA). Classifying AI use cases by risk, and writing the data clauses that actually protect people and the organisation.
Funda Five™
Data & Trust — the protective core of the policy.
Live session
Hands-on risk-classification workshop on your own use cases.
You build
AI Risk Register + Impact Assessment for one real use case in your organisation.
Week 4Writing the policy — guided drafting
Focus
The anatomy of a strong AI policy: purpose, scope, principles, roles & responsibilities, acceptable and prohibited use, procurement, human oversight, incident response and review cadence. We draft it together, clause by clause, using the AfriversalAI Policy Template.
Funda Five™
All five — assembled into one coherent document.
Live session
Live drafting clinic — bring your charter, leave with a structured draft.
You build
First full draft of your organisation's AI policy.
Week 5Implementation & adoption — making it real
Focus
A policy nobody follows is theatre. Governance structures and sign-off, training and change management, monitoring and audit, vendor evaluation, and public participation where it's required. How to get it approved and adopted, not just written.
Funda Five™
Human — accountability and oversight in practice.
Live session
Rollout-planning workshop + stakeholder objection-handling.
You build
12-month Implementation & Adoption Roadmap for your organisation.
Week 6 — CapstoneFinalise, review & defend
Focus
Structured peer review and a domain-expert assessment of your finished policy. You revise, then present and defend your key decisions — the test isn't whether you wrote a document, but whether you understand and can stand behind it.
Assessment
A complete, board-ready AI policy for your organisation + the implementation roadmap, assessed by a domain expert against a published rubric. One revision opportunity if below standard.
You earn
Certified AI Policy Practitioner™ — the credential says demonstrated, not completed.
The toolkit you keep
You leave with working templates you can reuse for the next policy, the next department, or the next organisation.
AI Policy TemplateThe full clause-by-clause structure, annotated with guidance.
AI Risk RegisterClassify and track AI use cases by risk and owner.
Algorithmic Impact AssessmentA repeatable assessment for any new AI deployment.
Vendor AI Evaluation ChecklistInterrogate a supplier's AI claims before you sign.
Why this is unlike anything else in SA
Our difference
You leave with a finished, defensible policy — not a certificate that says you attended.
No other South African programme takes a professional from a blank page to a board-ready AI policy for their own organisation, built on a shared judgment framework (the Funda Five™) and assessed by a domain expert. It is the difference between pasting a brief into ChatGPT and being able to defend every clause to your executive.
Format, prerequisites & cost
6-week guided intensive · one 90-minute live faculty session each week · weekly build-deliverables between sessions · live drafting & rollout clinics · max 20 learners · assessed by a domain-expert (not a facilitator) · capstone in Week 6 with one revision opportunity.
R39,995 / participant
Premium specialist credential · founding-cohort rate. Team and enterprise rates available. SETA/SDL eligibility subject to accreditation.
Prerequisite: Layer 1 Core Certification (AI Judgment Competency Certificate™), or demonstrated equivalent competency assessed on application. Cross-industry by design — a government analyst, a healthcare lawyer and a corporate compliance lead in the same room is part of the value.
Founding cohort · registering interest now
Stop guessing. Write the policy properly.
The AI Policy Cohort runs separately from the Core Certification. Register your interest to secure a founding place and be first to know when the next cohort opens. You leave with a finished, defensible policy — not a transcript.
Talk to us about a team cohort