Organizer 1
Dr. Lesleyanne Hawthorne
Senior Lecturer: Internationalisation
University of Melbourne
c/- Psychiatry Department, Connibere Building, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 3050

Tel: (613)8344.6955
Fax: (613)9349.2792
Email:lhawt@unimelb.edu.au


Organizer 2
Timothy Owen
Director
World Education Services
45 Charles Street East Suite 700 Toronto, ON Canada M4Y 1S2

Tel: 416 972 0070
Fax: 416 972 9004
Email:towen@wes.org





Workshop description:
Recent decades have coincided with unprecedented growth in global skill migration, including the movement of substantial numbers of professionals from non-traditional source countries to the west. This process has posed major challenges to credential recognition systems in immigrant receiving countries, including those of governments and professional bodies with legal responsibility to control entry and monitor professional standards. In recent years new credentialling models have begun to emerge, including a number which have challenged traditional and more formal approaches to evaluate and recognize international skills. This workshop examines a range of international case studies related to this trend, including in professions such as medicine that have traditionally been characterised by a high degree of exclusion.


Goals of the workshop:
To share innovative approaches to recognizing international credentials i




Policy relevance and topic: Faced with declining birthrates and working age populations, and the need to remain economically competitive, indistrialized nations are looking to skileld immigration to maintaiin and increase their labour force


How international comparisons are included: Examples will be profiled from Europe, North America and Australia


Reference to concerns with policy-making and best practice: Innovative approaches can be viewed as best practices, depending on their transferability across jurisdictions


Presenters / participants /other information
Mr Tim Owen,
World Education Services, Canada :
Introductory Comments: The Imperative to Develop New Credentialling Systems
towen@wes.org

Dr Lesleyanne Hawthorne,
University of Melbourne, Australia:
Subverting Credentialling Systems: An Australian Medical Case Study
lhawt@unimelb.edu.au

By 1991, 40% of Australia’s medically qualified workforce was overseas-born. Throughout the 1990s increased numbers of medically practitioners also arrived on a temporary basis. This paper explores the complexity of accrediting global medical qualifications, in a context traditionally characterised by a high degree of exclusion of medical ‘outsiders’. The paper examines the degree of transformation currently occurring in a select state, in a context of maldistribution of medical supply and sustained regional shortages.

Philip Loncke,
OCIV, Belgium:
Facilitating the Recognition of Refugees’ Qualifications: A Belgian Case Study
phil@ociv.org

The OCIV (Flemish Refugee Council) started two years ago with a pilot project regarding the equivalency of qualifications held by refugees and asylum seekers. In our target group there are a lot of highly qualified people and by informing them about re-qualification we try to improve labour market access. Unfortunately a lot of refugees and asylum seekers do not have any or only a few documents related to their studies. Others can't secure academic recognition since their study content or duration is different from comparable courses in Belgium. By assisting them individually with equivalency procedures and informing the responsible authorities of the legal and structural problems being faced in this process, a range of different options are given to refugees and asylum seekers to facilitate their access to further studies and employment.

Ms Naomi Alboim, Maytree Foundation, Canada
alboimn@qsilver.queensu.ca
A Systems Approach for Moving Internationally Trained Professionals into the Canadian Labour Market

Assoc-Professor Robyn Iredale, University of Wollongong, Australia
riredale@uow.edu.au
'The Internationalisation of Professions: Will It Mean New Approaches to the Recognition of Foreign Credentials?'

In an article in International Migration in December 2001 I argued that there has been a growing level of interaction between the market, the State and the professional bodies in some occupations. Shortages in particular sectors have led to this increased interaction as demand outweighs supply and government and industry try to find ways to increase supply. A general loosening up of procedures or mechanisms for assessing and admitting foreign-trained workers has started to occur in various countries/regions and particular industries. How widespread are these changes? What do they mean for sending and receiving countries? And what do they mean for individuals wanting to move elsewhere to work?

Brief bios of presenters

Please note:
We are still waiting to receive Naomi Alboim’s bio and abstract, however her participation has definitely been confirmed – to be forwarded as soon as they arrive.

Dr Lesleyanne Hawthorne was formerly the Research Manager (Social & Demographic Research) at Australia’s Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research. She is currently Director of the Faculty International Unit at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, has completed a wide range of migration research consultancies for the Australian government on migration (including skill migration) issues, and is the author or co-author of four books related to the field.

Phil Loncke is the coordinator of the study accompaniment and employment department of the Flemish Refugee Council (OCIV). He has worked in development contexts in Africa, is a former journalist, and has also researched the needs of ethnic minorities at WBNE.





Summary:
This workshop examines the progressive emergence of new approaches to the credentialling of overseas professional qualifications, in the context of the growing global mobility of people with skills. Through a range of national case studies, it demonstrates ways in which traditional controls may be by-passed, including in fields typically characterised by ‘foreigner’ exclusion.



Date: 12 September


(1 session is 3 hours)
Number of sessions: 1

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