NSRS certificates are awarded by Units of Competence at Levels 1, 2 or 3. This provides the flexibility for companies and their staff to select units relevant to them at a particular point in time. Apart from reducing training wastage, this flexibility enhances the transfer of learning to the workplace as what is learnt is immediately relevant to the job.

As there are no academic or training entry requirements, staff can access any unit based on their work needs. Thus, two retail assistants from the same store can select different units based on the immediate needs of their job. One could access the NSC-3 on Handle customer complaints, while the other could select the NSC-2 on Control stock inventory. As the NSRS defines skills levels by range, complexity and responsibility, staff can select units from any level based on the needs of their company.