HR Curriculum: Today and tomorrowAugust 8, 2016

Housekeeping

•Webinar will be recorded and posted online •CPD code will be given at end of webinar •Will post answers to questions that we could not answer in the webinar

OOTR webinars Monday,  July  18,  2016 Introducing  the  Employment  Law  exams  for  the  CHRP  and  the  CHRL Monday,  July  25,  2016 Designation update

Monday,  August  8,  2016 The  HR  curriculum:  Today and  tomorrow

Monday,  August  15, 2016 Professional  regulation  at  HRPA

Monday  August  22,  2016 Introduction  to  regulatory  decision‐making  and adjudication

Questions involving specific individual circumstances •This webinar is not the appropriate place and time to address specific individual circumstances •Sometimes the correct answer depends on some details that are not provided with the question •Please contact the Office of the Registrar with questions involving specific individual circumstances

                                                     

                              

                                                                                          

                    

An academic model “Our [certification] program is based on an academic model, whichrequires an individual to complete a comprehensive mandatoryacademic program plus demonstrated experience for a set period oftime at the professional/managerial level in human resources.” “HRPAO’s Board of Directors is adamant that an academic‐based model is essential to maintaining the high standards for which theCHRP designation is known in Ontario. Adding a mandatoryacademic program (with courses and exams) into the nationalstandard ensures a basic standard of and minimum academic achievement and follows accepted norms in other professions suchas accountants, engineers, lawyers and physicians” Jeanne Echlin, President, HRPAO, November 5, 1999.

PAO’s 1978 Accreditation model

The Montreal Framework (2001)

Re-thinking the HR curriculum

          

          

          

         

       

      

          

          

     

        

              

         

            

    

                    

    

            

             

   

   

Continuum of rigorousness for certification processes

No required

coursework, passing an exam and possibly some experience

required. Experience may substitute for

coursework. Exam tests for basic knowledge.

A few courses

required, but courses are offered by the

organization offering the credential and not by accredited post‐secondary academic

institutions. Experience

requirements are simply a matter of

time.

Technician or technologist or semiprofessional level. Two or three

year diploma required. Coursework offered by

accredited post‐secondary academic

institutions. Typically experience cannot be used as a

substitute for academic preparation.

Degree‐based

curriculum required. Coursework offered by

accredited post‐secondary academic institutions. There are

often supervised experience

requirements.

Post‐graduate degree required. Coursework offered by accredited

post‐secondary academic institutions.

There are often extensive practicum

requirements (internships, residencies,

supervised practice etc.)

Where was the (then) CHRP?

• The CHRP had features of levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 • It required a degree • But the coursework could be done at any level •It was also possible to substitute experience for coursework •There were gaps between what the CHRP aspired to be and the certification process

Levels and designations

CHRP A  Level  3  designation

CHRL A  Level  4  designation

What is Level 4?

•Designations can be positioned along a continuum of ‘credibility, value, and recognition’ • ‘Level 4’ refers to professions such as accountants, teachers, engineers, architects, registered nurses, etc. •Although all different in detail, the certification processes for Level 4 professions all have a high degree of rigourousness • In fact, the ‘credibility, value, and recognition’ accorded to a profession is highly correlated with the rigourousness of its certification process

Level 4 designations

We compared the then CHRP to Level 4 designations on the following aspects which are characteristic of Level 4 designations: • Educational requirements • Exams and assessments • Post-education professional integration programs • Experience requirements • Post-certification continuing competence requirement

Certification process design principles

•Certification is part of a bigger process which could be called ‘developing professionals’ •The more complex the skill, the more the development process needs to be engineered (rather than haphazard) • Sequencing is important • There are checkpoints at different stages of the process

The problem with flexibility

•Having many paths to earn a designation sounds good but it really doesn’t make sense from a development perspective •There is a certain sequence in which complex competencies (such as being an HR professional) are developed •Different components (education, exams, experience, supervision) all have a role to pley, but they are not interchangable

Miller’s pyramid (1990)

Miller’s pyramid as a developmental sequence

Professions and semiprofessions

• Way back in 1976, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) published a list of the differences between semiprofessions and professions• Comparatively professions had: Longer training periods Markedly more emphasis on theoretical and conceptual bases for practice

•It is the theory and concepts that distinguish professions from semiprofessions

About experience

•Education and experience are both important, but they play different roles in the development of professionals and they are not interchangeable •If one can learn everything that one needs to practice on the job, then we don’t have a profession • It is important that HR become evidence-based •Early professional experience bridges the academic knowledge with professional competence

Credit for experience

•REAL professional certification processes do not allow experience to substitute for a solid academic foundation • Doing so is actually very ‘unprofessional’ •Early experience is the time when fledgling professionals learn to apply basic knowledge—it doesn’t make sense to give credit for any experience that occurred before the academic training

The role of education

•To provide a solid academic foundation for a career as an HR professional •The theory and concepts which underlie professional practice •Develop the cognitive skills that go with theory and concepts •Socialization into the field

The generic competencies

The six generic competencies identified in the Ontario Qualifications Framework published by the Ministry of Training,Colleges and Universities (MTCU) are: • Depth and breadth of knowledge • Conceptual and methodological awareness/research • Communication skills • Application of knowledge • Professional capacity/autonomy • Awareness of limits of knowledge

    

   

                

   

         

Today Tomorrow

The HR curriculum

The HR curriculum

today

The CHRL curriculum • Degree‐based • Not less practical but more emphasis on

concepts and theories

The CHRP curriculum • Diploma‐based • Less emphasis on concepts and theories

Timeframe for academic requirement

•Most degree-granting programs with an HR stream or HR specialization already meet this standard (it is the case of HRPA catching up with existing programs rather than the other way around) • A consultation process has begun with academic institutions to work out implementation details• Consultation process to be completed this fall • Implementation dates to follow • Likely implementation date will be 2020

Until then

•Until this date, the coursework requirements for the CHRL will remain the same as the pre-2014 CHRP coursework requirement •The degree requirement is also as it was

What is the HR curriculum today?

• The nine required courses • Challenge exams can substitute •Ten years of professional experience in HR can substitute for academic foundation •Coursework is approved based on content but not on level Certificate-level, diploma-level courses, degree-level courses are all considered the same

• Coursework can be completed in any order

At its core

•At its core, the coursework requirement of today is still the Certificate in Personnel Management (CPM) of 1979 • It is based on a ‘certificate platform’

      

        

    

   

The nine-course coursework requirement

Human Resources Management (HRM) Organizational Behaviour Finance and Accounting Human Resources Planning Occupational Health and Safety Training and Development Labour Relations Recruitment and Selection Compensation

What is the HR curriculum today?

• No business foundation is required • No quantitative skills are required • No ‘integrative’ coursework is required • No professionalism or ethics

The CHRP coursework requirement

• Same as today, including alternative routes • Harmonize with Ministry standards

The CHRL educational requirement

• Most degree programs in HR already meet this new curriculum standard • It is based on a degree platform

Curriculum design

• Basic  business • Basic  quantitative  skills

• Core  HR  curriculum

• More  advanced  HR  courses • More  integrative  courses,  metrics

• Capstone  projects • Ethics  and  professionalism

      

                 

Business and managementfundamentals (15 credits)

• Introduction to management • Introduction to economics • Finance and accounting • Business statistics or quantitative methods in business • Business information systems

     

      

         

        

Core topics in Human Resources(30 credits) • Human Resources Management • Organizational Behaviour • Organization design • Human Resources Planning • Recruitment and Selection • Labour Relations • Employment and workplace law • Compensation and benefits • Training and development • Occupational health and safety

Human Resources integration(12 credits) • HR  strategy • HR  metrics • HR  Capstone  projects • Professionalism  and  ethics  for  HR  professionals

          

 

HR, business, and management electives(9 credits) • Labour economics • Program evaluation • Sociology of work • Leadership and leadership development • Project management • Negotiation • Marketing • Etc.

Timeframe for academic requirement

•Most degree-granting programs with an HR stream or HR specialization already meet this standard (it is the case of HRPA catching up with existing programs rather than the other way around) • A consultation process has begun with academic institutions to work out implementation details• Consultation process to be completed this fall • Implementation dates to follow • Likely implementation date will be 2020

Until then

•Until this date, the coursework requirements for the CHRL will remain the same as the pre-2014 CHRP coursework requirement •The degree requirement is also as it was

Questions