Peter Budnick, Ergoweb’s Co-Founder and CEO, will moderate and participate in a special session focusing on ergonomics certification programs from around the world. The session will take place next week at the 18th World Congress on Ergonomics, sponsored by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), in Recife, Brazil.
The primary focus of the session will be the question of mutual recognition among the various IEA endorsed and recognized certification bodies. A process for mutual recognition would provide options for an ergonomist certified by one organization to assume the credentials from another organization if desired. For example, if you are a Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE), a designation granted by the USA based Board of Certification in Professional Ergonomics (BCPE), and are or will be conducting significant work in the European Union, you might wish to apply for certification through CREE (Center for Registration of European Ergonomists). A mutual recognition agreement would provide a streamlined process through which your current certification, the CPE, could be exchanged for, or used in addition to, the EurErg designation granted by the EU based Center for Registration of European Ergonomists (CREE).
The special session is the culmination of over two years of interactions among members of the IEA Certification Subcommittee, a committee under the IEA Professional Standards and Education Committee. The Certification Subcommittee recruited members from many country-based or regional ergonomics certification bodies that are already endorsed by the IEA, or are seeking such endorsement. The panel assembled for the special session consists of the following representatives:
- Peter Budnick, Comittee Chair, representing USA based BCPE
- Yushi Fujita, Current Chair of the IEA PSE Committee, representing Japan based JES
- Thomas Smith, former IEA PSE Committee Chair
- Ernst Koningsveld, representing the European Union based CREE
- Margo Fraser, representing Canada based CCCPE
- Dave Moore, representing New Zealand based BCNZE
- Trudy Tilbury, representing Australia based HFESA
- Matthias Goebel, representing South Africa based ESSA
Committee members who contributed but are unable to participate in this session include Kirsti MacAulay (CCCPE), David Tappin (BCNZE) and Kazuo Aoki (JES).
The session is open to all attendees of the IEA 2012 conference:
Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012
1:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Auditorium Beberibe
Readers interested in ergonomics certification may want to review the IEA materials dealing with professional certification.