National Qualifications Systems Forum

FOREIGN QUALIFICATION RECOGNITION AND CANADIAN STANDARDS

The Canadian Forum of Labour Market Ministers (FLMM) recently released the Pan Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications.  The framework poses questions and challenges for professional regulatory authorities.   

In Canada, qualification recognition for regulated occupations is primarily a provincial and territorial responsibility that often is delegated, in legislation, to professional regulatory authorities.    

The Pan-Canadian Framework describes the ideal steps and processes that Canada aspires to build in order to address the current gaps to successful immigrant labour market integration.

It defines foreign qualification recognition (FQR) as the process of verifying that the knowledge, skills, work experience and education obtained in another country is comparable to the standards established for Canadian professionals and tradespersons.

Regulatory authorities, in each jurisdiction, have the primary responsibility for establishing occupational standards that ensure public, consumer and environmental protection.

There is no legislated approach to standards in Canada. What then is the Canadian context for standards?

 There are three noteworthy systems that co-exist.  

1. The National Occupational Analysis (NOA) system for standards  is a proven system of national co-operation
2. The National Occupational Standards (NOS) system for standards is a sector specific system.
3. There is a Canada version of the UK National Vocation Qualification (NVQ) system for standards which aligns with emerging international qualifications frameworks.

A LITTLE THEORY ABOUT NATIONAL VOCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

I enjoyed reading the article “National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ): One route to improve the status of women in Libraries. “ by Sandra Parker, Catherine Hare and Pat Gannon-Leary from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle in the United Kingdom.

It provided a concise overview of the some of the theory behind national vocational qualifications.

National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) exist in England and Wales while Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) exist in Scotland. They are both are underpinned by national occupational standards-a concept we have embraced here in Canada.

The following is taken from the section of the paper presented in Jerusalem, Israel entitled “What is an SVQ or NVQ and what is involved in getting one.”

 “NVQs measure skills that are directly relevant to the everyday world of work (Arundale 1995). They are competence based (Dakers 1994b and 1994c) and measure whether a person can carry out his or her work to the defined national standards of current best practice (Dakers 1997b).

THE EUROPEAN QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK

The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) has a competitive advantage in the global marketplace because it signals a more balanced approach to qualifications and it addresses what I think is a systemic issue in education and training.

The EQF is a common European reference framework which links countries’ qualifications systems together, acting as a translation device to make qualifications more readable and understandable across different countries and systems in Europe. It has the twin purposes of promote individual  mobility between countries  and facilitating lifelong learning.

The EQF seeks to balance input qualifications with output qualifications and to focus on vocational qualifications that are considered vital to sustain a competitive advantage.  

Output qualifications are called learning outcomes which are defined “ as a statement of what a learner knows, understands and is able to do on completion of a learning process.

The EQF emphasizes the results of learning rather than focusing on inputs such as length of study.

CANADIAN PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICES FOR STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT

Hank Rubin defines collaboration as a purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate in order to accomplish a shared outcome.

The Canadian government determined that collaboration was one of the fundamental principles for the formation of a Canadian Sector Council Program. The problem was then how to create  collaboration in sectors where stakeholders traditionally viewed each other as competition or in an adversarial relationship such as union management relations.  

Early proponents of the collaborative model developed expertise in process management. This involved developing an industry wide consensus through the collective application of sector knowledge, skills tools, techniques and systems to resolve systemic Human Resources issues.. 

Early successes lead to a plethora of sector collaborative approaches. As the sector council system matured, The Alliance of Sector Councils (TASC) was created to explore commonalities that would accelerate the adoption of best practices and lessons learned across all sectors.

TASC recently published a document entitled “Accepted Principles and Practices for National Occupational Standards, Certification Programs and Accreditation Programs.”

This article looks at one aspect –National Occupational Standards (NOS). This is important as we move further into our understanding of how the structure of European Qualifications National Standards differs from the Canadian NOS structure.

SECTOR COUNCILS IN CANADA

You can’t see the forest for the trees.

In addition to attempting to discern the evolution of National Qualifications Systems, I also am part of the Canadian system and as is typical in Canada, trees are pretty important.

Michael Porter in The Competitive Advantage of Nations introduced the idea of a cluster. An industry cluster is a geographic concentration of interconnected businesses suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. Clusters are considered to increase the productivity with which companies can compete, nationally and globally.

The United Kingdom, Australia and Canada built on this concept and created sector councils.  There are 34 sector councils in Canada that deal with the elements of a national qualifications framework in distinct ways that represent the industry sectors in which they serve.

In this post, we will first look at a Canadian sector councils, and review their purpose, objectives and benefits.