Welcome Message Dr. Man-Gon Park APACC President

I would like to welcome all our distinguished guests and delegates to this Inter-Governmental Workshop!

It is my honor to bring together key decision makers and experts in technical education and vocational training with keen understanding and ground experience in accreditation and certification.

Your participation demonstrates your keen support and cooperation that is key to starting a region-wide  initiative and strategy for human resources development.

We are pleased that the Asia and the Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission or APACC is kicking off with your  cooperation and affirmation of commitment.

Allow me to inform you that the APACC establishment has been initiated by the CPSC in December 2004 in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Sixteen member governments signified their commitment, on behalf of their Governments, to establish a regional body for accreditation and certification of TEVT institutions.

This is now known as the APACC Declaration of 2004, an important intergovernmental pronouncement of desire to keep international standards of capability and quality. Collectively, governments in the Asia Pacific Region see TEVT institutions as breeding grounds of highly employable workforce.

This means that there is a long road ahead of all of us. With our  significant involvement in this initiative, we should recognize that the road is far, but is worth taking despite the challenges ahead.

The objective of having a regional accreditation and certification commission stemmed from CPSC's desire to build up the RELIABILITY of the APACC system and tools. We are also interested to develop competence of accreditors who will be part of this whole exercise when fully operational.

In particular, the workshop aims to develop a deep understanding of APACC. We want to ensure that we are building up an overall system, on the basis of actual TEVT institution conditions and existing academic, management and organizational considerations.

Secondly, we seek to generate a very good discussion and exchange of input on evaluation tools and activities of the Commission.
We also intend to provide an exercise to experience, first-hand, if the accreditation system we are building will work according to our regional objectives.

To sum it up, we are here to work, actively exchange input, and discuss. Along the way, we will learn while we process and define accreditation procedures, standards and guidelines as applicable in technical education and vocational training institutions in Asia and the Pacific region.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the time when first have to evaluate ourselves before we can evaluate other institutions. We are banking on you to give a critical and substantial input and evaluation. 

All these will be essential in refining our evaluation instruments and tools, and achieve a highly reliable output.

However, it is not to say that we lack the understanding of what we are doing.

We are more interested to shape a regional accreditation and certification system that reflects realistic education and training  standards as against labor conditions in Asia and the Pacific region. This, as we do our best to uphold, sustain and maintain quality culture in the TEVT sector.

The underlying principle is to request you to contribute what you know will work, or not work.

And most importantly, for you to be active OWNERS of the accreditation and certification system.

My dear colleagues, I wish to emphasize that establishing this scheme is intended to make a system that is for all of us, and by all of us. It is to be owned by the stakeholders, to be become an acceptable system capable of evaluating and guiding institutions into embracing excellence and standards of quality.

Ultimately, accreditation will serve the interests of the general public by keeping educational institutions within the highest standards and excellence.

We highly count on you and your significant input. We all want to see a network of TEVT institutions capable of producing a workforce with internationally recognized skills and knowledge for greater mobility.

I thank you, for sharing with the objectives and for signifying your commitment.

Let us all wish ourselves a very productive workshop. Thank you very much. 

 

Inspirational Address Sec. Augusto "Boboy" Syjuco Director-General, TESDA, Philippines                            by Dr. Santiago M. Yabut, Jr. Deputy Director General for Field Operations & Director, National Printing Office of the Philippines

Congratulations to the organizers of, and participants to, this Inter-Governmental Workshop on Regional Accreditation, Modelling and Accrediting the Accreditors.

Having been a participant and presentor during the 'International Conference on Accreditation and Certification for TET Institutions' held last December 2-3, 2004, in SIVAT, South Korea, I have, and rightly so, associated the objectives of this workshop to the agreements we have reached in last year's conference.

This inter-governmental workshop is not only the initial first step in the establishment of a Regional Accreditation and Certification Body, it is also a step in the right direction towards promoting mobility of workforce skills in the Asia-Pacific region.

In last year's conference, we have unanimously agreed that accreditation is both a status and a process.  As a status, accreditation provides public notification that a TVET institution meets standards of quality set forth by an accrediting body. Accordingly, in the process of achieving recognition by an accrediting body, the institution is committed to external review and validation by peers in seeking not only to meet the standards but also to continuously seek ways to enhance the provision of Technical Vocational Education and Training.

Recognizing, however, that most TVET institutions in CPSC member-countries are still not active in accreditation and certification activities, this inter-Governmental workshop is indeed, very necessary in motivating institutions and nations to adhere to a pre-defined measures and standards of education and training outputs and outcomes.

Commendation is, therefore, in order for both the CPSC and its Director General, Dr. Man-Gon Park, for role-modelling a constancy of purpose that is the hallmark of an effective change agent. CPSC is ably performing its catalyst role in regional accreditation and certification and this fact is not lost to many of us who regard accreditation as a challenge to change TVET for the better.

In behalf of TESDA, I wish you all a fruitful workshop!

 

Keynote Speech H.E. Mr. W.M. Senevirathna Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Philippines

Honorable Secretary Augusto "Boboy" Syjuco, Director General of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)
Represented by Dr. Santiago Yabut Jr., Deputy Director General, TESDA
Dr. Man-Gon Park, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, CPSC
Mr. E. Ellawala, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Skills Development, Vocational and Technical Education
Distinguished Guests/Participants from Member Countries,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am honoured and privileged to address you as Keynote Speaker at the Inaugural Session of Inter-Governmental Workshop on Regional Accreditation Modeling and Accrediting the Accreditors on 15th and it will continue until 26th August 2005 at CPSC, Manila, Philippines.  I also welcome all of you to Manila.
First of all, let me thank Dr. Park, CPSC Director-General for inviting me to attend this Workshop.  Today, we have here 25 high-level participants from 17 member  countries including distinguished speakers to conduct and assist the workshop at CPSC.
As you are aware, CPSC was established in December 1973 by member governments of Colombo Plan as an autonomous institution under the governance of a Governing Board consisting of one representative of each participating government.  As a specialized agency of the Colombo Plan, participants in the operation of CPSC is on voluntary basis and admission for membership is open to member governments of Colombo Plan through Board approval.
As representative of member countries, you are aware, CPSC is to improve the quality of technician education and training in the member countries by meeting the needs of those staff who play an active part in in-service staff development program.

In addition, CPSC has provided:

• National and international human resources development programmes and projects;
• Technology transfer to member countries;
• Higher education in technology education;
• Establishing labour market information system; and
• Expanding web based teaching and learning systems

For the year 2004/05, CPSC conducted in-country international and regional conference, workshop/symposia totaling 26 programmes and attended more than 689 participants from 19 member countries.

I note with great satisfaction of the Director General and the professional staff of CPSC and their excellent arrangements and their dedication in conducting various programmes.

The development in the world economic order and the radical changes in many areas on the international arena have increased the need of co-operation and interdependence between countries so as to face the responsibilities of developing their societies and the welfare of their citizens, and achieve optimum utilization of their resources through exchange of experiences working together among professionals, policy makers like you.

Accordingly as the centre of excellence in human resources development and Asia Pacific, Inter-governmental International Colombo Plan Staff College has been advocating to establish a regional system of accreditation and certification.

Acting to be the main voice for technical education and vocational training in the region, CPSC now coddles a unit and later an autonomous organization which will serve as a central body for accreditation and certification.  Aside from evaluating institutions, programs and accrediting bodies, CPSC also leads in the collection, organization, storage, and dissemination of data and information about the current state and future trends of accreditation; and acts as a cooperation agency to perform referral services, research assistance and other accreditation-related activities.

That plan came into fruition when the CPSC Governing Board approved the Corporate Plan 2003-2008 and the Director-General actualized it through the Seoul Declaration. Done in December, 2004, this binding agreement laid the significant foundation to set up the Asia Pacific Accreditation and Certification Commission or APACC.

With 16 member governments cohesively supporting the move, the newly born Commission aims to promote the comparability of technical education and vocational training systems; promote the development of qualification equivalences within the region; and eliminate all constraints on educational opportunities.

A sequel to APACC 2004, the Inter-Governmental Workshop on Regional Accreditation Modeling and Accrediting the Accreditors would be a fitting venue to develop guidelines, instruments, structures and procedures that would facilitate equating, harmonization and eventual standardization of accreditation and certification of qualifications in the region.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Your attendance to this very laudable undertaking is crucial.  As the brains and muscles of technical education as well as accreditation and certification in your respective countries, I trust that your active participation during the deliberations will provide a credible evaluation system applicable to the needs and aspirations of the people in the Asia Pacific Region. I am confident that your contributions, at this stage of firming up the basic accreditation documents: Accreditation Manual, Survey Instrument, Regional Standard Skills and Handbook for Assessors will spell out a regional achievement for the benefit of the workforce.

As the Vice Chairman of the Governing Board, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the delegates from member countries and wish you a pleasant stay in Manila of a great nation.  I also wish to convey my appreciation to the Director General and the members of the staff for their arrangements for  a successful Workshop.

Thank you.