The chamber as a way of associating and promoting the activities

The organized development is the chamber’s main activity

 
One of the ways for protecting certain activities, promoting the professionalism, the ethic responsibilities and the rights for improving the quality in certain field and profession, at the same time protecting the professionals’ interests in that field, is establishing chambers.

In our country, besides the Economic Chamber, there are several other chambers, which have been active, such as the Doctors’ Chamber and the Chamber of Lawyers. Recently, the Macedonian Association of Psychologists has prepared the Law for performing psychological job, thus placing a legal basis for establishing a chamber of psychologists of the Republic of Macedonia.

There are other initiatives for establishing chambers among the social workers and teachers for establishing social workers', that is educational workers’ chamber in RM.

 

Why and how is a chamber established?
 

The chambers usually establishes the criteria and makes decisions for issuing, renewing and taking away working licenses in a certain profession; it keeps records on / registers the professional from certain job who perform practice; it looks after the promotion of the professionalism and the continuous education in a certain job; it establishes the norms and the standards for accreditation; cooperates with all relevant institutions; gives opinion and participates in the preparation of laws in the corresponding field and sees to it being respected and so on.

Nowadays, there has to be a legal basis for establishing a chamber. The chambers have their own bodies defined in the statute. These are usually: an assembly, supervising committee, a president and so on. The chambers can have permanent or temporary commissions or sectors, which are established for performing certain tasks, with a decision from the assembly as the highest body of the chamber.

The chambers are usually financed from the fees, the assets from the licenses, assets from the continuous education or other forms of self-financing. However, what is necessary is to establish a legal basis for establishing a chamber first.

 

Why is this way of associating well?
 

The process of approaching EU imposes certain standards and qualities in all spheres of the social life, especially in the field of education. These standards and qualities refer to both, the formal education and the process of finding ways for evaluating and accrediting the informal education in various fields and professions.

One of the most important segments, which bring us closer to the European standards directly, is the process of accrediting doctors, social workers, psychologists and others. It is the very accreditation, especially its implementation in certain fields, which serves as the most direct opportunity that enables professionals through their professional associations, to take active part in creating the future of their professions.

The accreditation is a process that leads to formal acknowledgement of the knowledge, skills and attitudes and is a basis upon which licenses for performing professional activities are issued to individuals or institutions.  

The license can be basic (completed university education and practice) and specialized (profiling in certain area). The license is usually issued with a several-year duration (for ex. 7 years for the doctors and the psychologists) and it is necessary to renew it after it has expired.

The renovation of the license means its reaccreditations, which owes to the continuous professional development. A continuous professional development means development, assessment and following the work of professionals in certain field, which results in meeting the necessary professional standards.

The continuous professional development has to be organized, well-planned and accredited and its very organization is one of the key activities of the chamber and its members - professional associations.

Part of the activities in the accreditation process cover: preparation of annual curriculums for continuous education, assessment of the activities and the professional development through a scoring system which includes points, credits and their accreditation by the chamber, preparation of working protocols, building partnerships with other institutions and international associations, etc. Thus, the accreditation contributes towards improving the quality of the job, raising the standards of the institutions, improving the status of the professionals who demonstrate continuous quality in their job, as additional motive and incentive for professional development and following the world tendencies.

 by Neda Maleska – Sacmaroska
project associate/trainer at the MCIC