The landscape of learning and development is continuously evolving; and rightly so. The demand in the knowledge economy is placing pressure on providers and practitioners alike, to not only stay abreast of changes but bring forward solutions that enables their learners and clients to receive quality learning content and the associated recognition for learning achievements.
Omni HR Consulting has taken the decision to seek global certification with The CPD Services in the UK; benchmarking the organisation and its programmes against global standards, which will enable their learners to receive CPD points upon meeting specific learning requirements.
Managing Director, Lize Moldenhauer and Cindy Londt, Operations Executive provides insight into this strategic decision:
Q: Why has Omni chosen to get certification with The CPD Services?
LM: We considered certification from a global perspective to allow transference of skill from a continuous professional development, specifically because the environment in which we are currently working and engaging, requires individuals to continuously be on a learning cycle. For us, CPD was important from a broader spectrum (and not localized) to allow us to engage with people irrespective of geographical borders and upon research, settled with the credibility offered by The CPD Services.
CL: From a content perspective, we believe our learning content is academically and research grounded. The CPD gives the solution additional credibility and global recognition.
Q: Was the process towards obtaining certification rigorous?
CL: The actual engagement process and openness has been smooth in terms of access into the world of seeking CPD accreditation. Rigor is set on the actual quality assuring of our content, processes and methodology. Critical questions around the strategic objective, learning outcome objectives and showing our quality in the content methodology processes is what supports the whole CPD certification in the first place.
Q: Will Omni seek to obtain Council on Higher Education accreditation to support local market needs?
LM: Short answer is yes! Open and effective communication is required, inviting stakeholders to engage, especially for private provision looking to enter the higher education space. The barrier to entry is quite significant. We want to provide best in class solutions for where we are planted, which is South Africa, whilst considering what avenues provide our clients and learners with a global alternative.
Q: What does the certification with The CPD Services mean for the value chain?
LM: Both the organisation (in this case Omni) and the programmes or events we submit to The CPD Services will be certified. In other words, one would say the programme is worthy of X amount of credits, for X amount of learning that took place.
CL: The quality of the organisation as well as the individual programmes are evaluated. We have already submitted one of our programmes ( including full curriculum, learning structure and work-integrated learning assignments) within our Business and Leadership Academy, called Disruptive Leadership and I am comfortable to say, we should receive certification early March.
LM: In describing the Disruptive Leadership programme in one word, I will opt for progressive! The reason (for me) is the way in which the curriculum and the journey has been formulated to support leadership development. We are asking individuals to be self-directed. Leaders are being placed within a framework to own self-direction, which is a mechanism where organisations need to shift and change from a culture of learning to where individuals take personal responsibility and accountability for learning so that they may grow and have reward within their career framework.
Omni has an additional global intake in May for their progressive Disruptive Leadership programme. More details about the learning programme can be found here.
