Certification of competencies

Certifying professionals gives the assurance that they possess, at given levels, the competencies needed to carry out their profession and perform their professional duties satisfactorily.

Certification of competencies is a tool furthering professional development. It is an adjunct to career development as well as a healthy and reliable way of evaluating ones personal competencies.

It can encourage professional and geographical mobility (eg. international careers) and grant recognition within a company hierarchy.

It can also enable professionals who do not have a diploma to be recognised by their peers.

Who is concerned?

- all information and documentation professionals who are interested in professional and geographic mobility

- consultants who are increasingly required to provide irrefutable proof of the competencies outlined in their professional proposals

- trainers involved in further training

History

1994
ADBS publishes its first Competencies Guide and sets up a mechanism for certifying competency levels

1997
ADBS, along with five other ECIA Members, is selected for the DECIDoc project (Developing Euro-competencies in Information & Documentation)

1999-2001
Publication of "EuroGuide" in 9 languages under the auspices of ECIA
Development of a certification mechanism by SEDIC (Spain) and DGI (Germany)

2002
Establishment of the European EuroGuide Maintenance Group [the Permanent Follow-Up Committee - CPSE - is comprised of ABD (Belgium), ADBS (France), ASLIB (UK) DGI (Germany)]