National Adult Literacy Database

In 2007, the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials (CICIC), a unit of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), embarked on a project entitled the Pan-Canadian Quality Standards in International Academic Credential Evaluation.

The project provided for a diagnostic study to investigate the consistency and portability of assessments across Canada. Subsequently, a number of recommendations were proffered, and these have formed the basis of Phase 2 of the project. The report for the project is available at http://evaluation.cicic.ca/37/Phase_1.html.

In April 2010, CICIC undertook this second phase with funding provided through Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s Foreign Credential Recognition Program. One of the activities called for the development of a quality assurance framework for the assessment of international academic credentials.

It is intended that CICIC work with individuals who perform academic credential assessment to draft a pan-Canadian QAF that would be proposed to all groups that perform academic credential assessment in Canada (i.e. agencies, universities, colleges, regulatory bodies, sector councils and employers). The use of a pan-Canadian QAF by numerous groups performing academic credential assessments will facilitate the mutual recognition of evaluation processes and policies, promoting greater portability.

Special guidelines from CMEC:
Diversis Inc., the firm hired to carry out the project, has completed a draft quality assurance framework for your review. For the next four weeks, we are soliciting feedback from individuals who perform academic credential assessments. We are also inviting them to distribute this document to others who might be interested.

We would appreciate receiving comments and suggestions from all groups that employ academic credential assessors, as this framework may eventually become an important reference tool. Feedback will also be instrumental in the progress of the project as a whole. You may wish to provide general comments, or focus on certain aspects of the framework.

You can download the document by joining the Pan-Canadian Quality Standards in International Academic Credential Evaluation (Phase 2) Social Network at http://social-network.cicic.ca.

The draft framework is located in the “Documents” section of the Quality Assurance Framework section, in the left hand column. You can either participate directly in the discussion, or send me a copy of the document with your changes highlighted (ideally using the “tracked changes” option in Microsoft Word) at n.tran@cmec.ca.

Please provide your feedback by May 13, 2011.

If you have questions, please contact Nancy Tran, Project Manager, CICIC, at 416.962.8100, Ext.241 or n.tran@cmec.ca.

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