Introduction
Professional Standards and Certification – Benefits and Opportunities
Access to information and privacy legislation appeared on the Canadian landscape 30 years ago, when Nova Scotia enacted the first access legislation in Canada. Federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions in Canada have all now enacted this legislation. With this legislation, there has emerged a new group of skilled workers called Information and Privacy Professionals (“IPP”), with roles in the public and private sectors.
There is a growing sense among Canada's access and privacy associations that the success of information and privacy programs will depend largely on how this emerging profession addresses some well-recognized risks. These growing risks, by now quite apparent in the public sector, include but are not limited to the imminent onset of first generation retirements, the frustration of static career structures, and a general lack of career-path patterns and succession-planning programs.
Among the opportunities of increased professionalism are the availability of training and education, the growing receptiveness in the employment marketplace for professional certification as an acceptable sign of quality assurance, the current availability of first generation IP Professionals to transfer knowledge to new entrants to the profession, and the anticipation of more comprehensive business information disclosure laws for Canadian jurisdictions.
Two of Canada’s national access and privacy associations, the Canadian Access and Privacy Association (CAPA) and the Canadian Association of Professional Access and Privacy Administrators (CAPAPA) have joined forces to promote professionalizing access and privacy administration in the public and private sectors of Canada. Subsequently, the Québec-based L’Association sur l’accès et la protection de l’information (AAPI), has lent its support to this pan-Canadian initiative.
These associations are not-for-profit and member-funded bodies whose objectives are dedicated to the ongoing professional development, education and expanded expertise of individuals who work in the IPP field. In 2003, CAPAPA surveyed its members to determine the most pressing issues. CAPAPA’s membership resoundingly identified the challenge of establishing Professional Standards and certification as its top priority. CAPAPA and CAPA then jointly launched an initiative to explore professionalization of IPP work in Canada.
Public bodies are continually challenged to respond to the public’s right of access to information, and both public and private organizations have need for competent professionals who can bring common skill sets to the task of assuring protection of privacy. The CAPA-CAPAPA Professional Standards and Certification Project (“PSCP”) is intended, in the short term, to address the need for standardization of IPP skill sets and, in the long term, to address human resource and career management challenges common to all IP jurisdictions. These latter challenges result in partresult from the rapid emergence of IP Professionals and their unique contributions, now so integral to the trust-building effort of government and business organizations. IP Professionals believe that a concerted initiative towards professionalization of IP work is in the public interest.
CAPA-CAPAPA Professional Standards and Certification Project
The Professional Standards and Certification Project is intended to proceed in the following stages:
1. Identify and establish Professional Standards for IP Professionals
(deliverable due March 31, 2007),2. Research and develop a certification delivery model (deliverable due August
31, 2007), and3. Recommend a governance framework and principles that will allow a
governance body to successfully manage and implement a national standards
and certification program for public and private sector IP Professionals in
Canada (deliverable due date November 30).
Funding for phase one of this project has been made available from the Office
of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (“OPCC”) through a 2006-2007
Contributions Program Grant.
The Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada (“OICC”) has assisted with project management by providing a National Director position for the duration of the project. Office and technical support has been provided by the Office of the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner.
Supporting and guiding the work of the project is a national Working Group of Canadian experts. The National Director manages the day-to-day operations of the project and reports progress to the Working Group. Working Group members include:
· Frank Work, Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner, Chair
· Laurence Kearley, Vice-President and General Counsel, CAPA
· Carla Heggie, National Chair, CAPAPA
· Linda Girard, Director, AAPI
· Alan Leadbeater, Deputy Information Commissioner for Canada
· Raymond D’Aoust, Assistant Privacy Commissioner for Canada
· Stephen Johnson, Strategic Research Analyst,Steven Johnston, Senior Security and Technology Advisor, OPCC
· Dr. Douglas Knight, Director, IAPP Certificate Program, Government Studies, Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta
· Pierre Beaudry, Director (ENAP), University of Quebec
· Drew McArthur, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, TELUS Communications Company
PSCP obtained input and support from the Information and Privacy Commissioners, Offices of the Ombudsman, Review Officer and oversight community (see Appendix A: Stakeholder Letters of Support); government departments responsible for supporting access and privacy legislation across Canada; and private-sector stakeholders.
These groups have an interest in professionalization of IPP work in Canada, and recognize this initiative as a timely project that will build capacity and facilitate establishment of this emerging profession.
Establishing a Foundation: Professional Standards
for the IPP
Professional Standards are the foundation upon which certification and governance are built. Professional Standards identify the core competencies required to practice as a member of the IPP profession. These core competencies are measurable and allow for an evaluation that indicates if a competency has been attained.
The challenge to establish a new profession for IPPs based on Professional Standards requires a change in thinking. People who work in the access and privacy administration arena enter practice through a number of diverse career paths. They need to see collectively that the work they perform is worthy of being designated as a profession.
Inherent in this belief is the recognition and valuing of being part of a self-governing profession that uses standards as measures of its work. The standards will be defined as the minimum-levels-for-practice criteria, used to evaluate competence to practice as an IP Professional. The standards become the measurement tool by which all are evaluated and do not allow for an argument that certain individuals are ‘special’ and therefore not subject to application of the standards. The standards outlined in this report form the test by which all IPP Professionals, in the public or private sector, will be evaluated when considered for certification.
In working toward establishing Professional Standards and certification criteria, it was recognized that a new vernacular needed to be established to facilitate understanding and bring together the concepts of this new profession. A common vernacular facilitates communication among the group and adds to the uniqueness of their practice.
The purpose of this report is to present standards in draft form for the Working Group to review for acceptance, as the basis for certification.