AHRI’s drive towards professional certification took a major leap forward last week. The National Certification Council, the independent assessment body, conducted its inaugural meeting at which it certified the first group of candidates to come before it for HR certification.
The candidates were a combination of practitioners who had successfully completed the four-unit postgraduate level AHRI Practising Certification (APC) Program and seasoned HR leaders who qualified via an approved Senior Leaders Pathway.
In her role as AHRI’s national manager of professional development, Angelina Pillai oversees the progress of candidates who undertake the APC pathway to certification.
“Among other criteria, successful completion of the APC is a core requirement for certification by the NCC. The candidates who present to the Council with an APC have undergone an exacting program that attests to their HR knowledge and to their ability to actually do in practice what they say they can do. The fourth APC capstone unit assesses candidates’ practical workplace capability through a work-integrated project.
“The APC is designed to enable candidates to successfully achieve HR certification. The way that is achieved is through candidates coming to a realisation during the program whether they are up to its demands. If they are not, they are encouraged to defer and come back to it at a time when they are confident they can attain the standard required, and that has happened with a number of candidates in this cohort. We are not interested in failing candidates at the finishing line, instead we want to support them towards a successful outcome,” said Pillai.
AHRI has also developed a tool that provides a mechanism by which individuals who are interested in pursuing certification can assess themselves against the eligibility criteria in order to determine the most appropriate certification pathway for them. The tool is available on the AHRI website.
The National Certification Council was appointed by the AHRI Board and is made up of representatives from academia and from businesses in the private and public sectors. The nine Council members are:
- Distinguished Professor Wayne F. Cascio, Robert H. Reynolds chair in global leadership, University of Colorado Denver, and the present chair of the Society of Human Resource Management Certification Commission in the United States
- Professor Carol Dickenson, senior deputy vice-chancellor, Queensland University of Technology
- Tanya Hammond, director, Tailored HR Solutions
- Carmel McGregor, former deputy secretary defence people, Department of Defence, and adjunct professor, University of Canberra
- Ross Miller, general manager, retail banking, St George Bank
- Dr John Molineux (FCPHR), senior lecturer in human resource management, Deakin University, and former HR director, Australian Taxation Office
- Robert R. Orth, former director of human resources, IBM Australia and New Zealand, and presently executive director, PeopleSense!
- Dr Kim Schofield (FCPHR), former deputy commissioner, Western Australia Public Sector Commission, and presently managing director, Kapability Solutions
- Victoria Winkler, head of assessment, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the United Kingdom (CIPD)
- Peter Wilson AM (FCPHR) chairs the Council, and is also the chairman and national president of the Australian Human Resources Institute
The National Certification Council meets twice a year in February and in August.
To learn more about certification, click here.
You can also follow our certification vlogger, Sam Robertson, as she undertakes AHRI’s Practising Certification Program.
For past Perspective columns by Council Chair Peter Wilson AM (FCPHR), click here.