BHPC to monitor health course quality
Innocent Selatlhwa | Wednesday May 17, 2017 09:35
Speaking at the signing ceremony, BQA chief executive officer (CEO)Abel Modungwa said the main objective of the MoU is to promote harmony between the two sectors of education and health.
“BQA was established to quality-assure education and training. This is quite a broad task that can only be fully achieved through engagement of stakeholders such as professional bodies and other regulatory bodies, here and abroad,” he said.
Modungwa said Botswana as a country is faced with challenges of unemployment, which is caused by among others the mismatch of skills and industry needs. “It is against this backdrop that as the authority, we will engage as many industry players as possible to promote relevance of education and training to industry needs,” he said.
Modungwa said it had overcome the biggest challenge of engaging subject matter experts to validate learning programmes.
“The MoU will ensure that BHPC reviews any health profession learning programme submitted to BQA for accreditation. BHPC will carry out the necessary quality assurance processes in relation to the submitted learning programmes, working directly with the education and training providers. Once this process is completed, BHPC will produce a report recommending the appropriate accreditation decision to BQA,” he said.
Modungwa expressed pleasure at the commitment of the two parties in ensuring improved quality of education and training. He said the agreement to share expert resources, monitor for compliance, as well as provide training to staff of both organisations on quality assurance and other related services will ensure an improved and seamless approach to training in the health sector
. Modungwa said the agreement is one amongst many that BQA will sign with other professional and regulatory bodies to ensure sector relevant quality teaching and learning. He said they are currently engaging with various organisations to enter into MoUs of this nature.
He called on other professional bodies to facilitate similar partnerships.
For her part, BHPC acting registrar, Rebecca Bale said they were ready to deliver.
“We have been waiting for this moment for long. We are ready to implement this. We deal with human lives and have to make sure everything is of good standards. The signing of the MoU is a first step in the right direction,” she said.