The first Consensus Conversation at Hackle Brooke Convention Centre uncovered whether government should initiate or spearhead a Professional Planner Standard being investigated at this time. This was one of the outcomes from the Events Summit in late 2015 in which the trade maintained that without government leadership โ a professional planner standard would not materialise.
On the Consensus Conversation platform, Siphiwe Mashoene, head of marketing and events for SA Board for People Practices (SABPP) provided an excellent example of an industry-led standards programme that had proved highly successful with HR management embracing professional standards for their soft-skills sector of the economy.
In a quoted word from the SABPPโs CEO, โIt is always beneficial for the industry itself to be at the forefront of the professional standards process.ย With SA managementโs knowledge and ability โ the industry itself must lead the way. By all means ensure that the appropriate government departments are eventually kept-in-the-loop, once a format plus roll-out is well establishedโ.
Similarly with tertiary centres โ the industry leads with the universities and colleges following suit in order to instil in the students the expectations of the industry who will ultimately employ them.ย Importantly tertiary educators must โsing-from the same-song-sheetโ otherwise the so-called โqualifiedโ students may be rejected by the formal industry in question.
