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Prison Officer

OFO Code: 541301

Last checked 7 October 2026

PATHLENS

1. Occupation identity

OFO code
541301
Occupation
Prison Officer
Classification
OFO 2021
Major group
SERVICE AND SALES WORKERS
Unit group
5413 · Prison Guards

Official description
Prison guards watch over and maintain order among inmates of prisons, reformatories or penitentiaries.

More official OFO detail

Specialisations: Gaoler, Correctional Officer, Custodial Officer, Correction Facility Worker, Correctional Centre Coordinator, Cell Block Attendant, Prison Guard, Prison Warden, Custodial Services Officer

  • Making periodic inspection tours of cells and inspecting and maintaining the security of locks, windows, doors and gates
  • Escorting prisoners in transit and during temporary leaves
  • Observing the conduct and behaviour of prisoners to prevent disturbances and escapes
  • Patrolling prison areas to prevent escape
  • Searching arriving prisoners, putting their valuables in safekeeping, escorting prisoners to cells and locking them in
  • Supervising prisoners at work, meals, or during recreation periods
  • Assisting with the implementation of rehabilitation programs

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

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5. Qualification

Qualification evidence pending.

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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.