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Re: [Linux-aus] Interview with Mark Lloyd from ACS on compulsory accreditation



On Sat, 30 Sep 2006, Brenda Aynsley wrote:


pps I would imagine that your partner would be eligible for membership at the associate level at least and with the passage of time working in the industry full professional membership. If you want to send me the CV I will forward it to the Manager Professional Standards for his view on eligibility.




The web page at http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=skillapplication states that a fee is applicable for assessment of non-accredited courses. The fee is stated as being $400.


As previously mentioned, the ACS web site indicates that the annual membership fee is $320, and a joining fee of $110 is also applicable.

On the web page at http://www.acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=skillguidelines , is stated:
"Applicants who apply for RPL and do not hold a recognised academic tertiary qualification will have deducted from their total work experience a period of relevant IT professional experience deemed necessary to have reached the level of qualification allocated. For example, if an applicant is allocated a qualification level equivalent to a 2-year diploma, they will have two years deducted from the total of their recognized work experience, and therefore eight years in total will be needed. (April 2003)"


So, because the ACS does not recognise the equivalent of an honours degree, as being as at least the same level as a pass degree, it automatically imposes a penalty of time of work experience, regardless of the fact that the PostGrad Dip was earned while working full-time, in the subject area.

Anne has been working as a computing professional, for about 14 years, and in that time, while working, has completed a PostGraduate Diploma in Computer Science at Curtin University, is a certified computer trainer (MCT), and has written and operated training courses, and has completed most of a Masters degree in computing (MSD), which involves units in areas such as ethics, etc.

She is virtually qualified at the same level as an ACS Senior Member (SMACS).

Yet, because the ACS does not regard an Australian honours degree equivalent, as being at at least the same level as a pass degree at the same recognised institution, she would have to pay the ACS an extra $400, just to join as an ordinary member, to get her honours degree equivalent, assessed as being as of at least the same level as a pass degree at the same institution.

Thus, she would have to pay to the ACS, $510 to join as a Member, and, $320 per year membership fees, so, the first year would cost her $830, and it would cost $320 per year, after that, to continue her membership.

All of this, makes the IEEE Computer Society, which I have also mentioned in a previous posting on this thread, a much more practical and realistic institution for membership of an applicable professional organisation in Australia, as it does not penalise qualified people for its own inability to properly assess qualifications, and, it does not seek to profit from its own shortcomings, in what amounts to profiteering by the ACS, in charging a $400 fee to determine that an honours degree equivalent is at at least the same level as a pass degree in the same subject area, at the same institution.

Given all of the fees that the ACS charges, instead of penalising valuable people, for the shortcomings of the ACS, if the ACS wants to be taken seriously as a professional body, it should be proactively making it easier for qualified people to join, by going out there, investigating what professional qualifications are on offer, or, have been recently made available, and, assessing their standing, instead of the profiteering because it can't be bothered.

Thus am I dubious of the qualification of the ACS to act as a professional body in assessing the standing of professional qualifications, when it does not know the standing of professional qualifications in Australia, awarded by Australian universities.

--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams,
  published by Pan Books, 1992

....................................................