Creation of sectoral staff qualification assessment and certification system in sport and health tourism

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Dr.Sc.Econ., Dr.Med., Professor A.M. Vetitnev
Dr.Sc.Econ., Professor N.A. Savelyeva
Sochi State University, Sochi

The study was performed pursuant to Federal Government Order #06.081.11.0049 of 7.11.2013 “Professional Qualification Assessment and Certification, Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector: Model Design and Appraisal Project”

Keywords: qualification assessment and certification system, sport and health tourism.

Introduction. It is a matter of common knowledge today that success and competitiveness of the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism sector is largely dependent on how well trained its service personnel is. This is the reason why the top priority is being given now to the efforts to establish an effective mechanism of the staff qualification assessment and certification in the sector well tailored to the sector-specific challenges and needs.

Objective of the study was to substantiate and design an effective staff qualification assessment and certification model for the recreation, sport and health tourism sector.

Study results and discussion. It should be noted that key issues of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System design for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector have virtually never been tackled and seriously studied neither in the Russian Federation nor abroad. Nevertheless, the staff qualification assessment and certification projects are being implemented on an uncoordinated basis by some local professional associations of a few recreation, sport and health tourism sub-sectors, e.g. by the relevant fitness industry association [1] and the sport and health tourism association [5].

As things now stand, the ongoing staff qualification assessment and certification projects have been initiated by the top-level decisions. At the federal level, the system is represented by the Public-Private Council and the National Qualifications Development Agency (NQDA) acting as a base institution for the initiative [2]. At the sector level, the system is expected to include an Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre and the relevant local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres. On the other hand, it makes sense to design the sector-level Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System on an adjustable basis to meet specific requirements of the multiple local operations. Based on the knowledge of the current conditions and needs of the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector, we would offer the following staff qualification assessment and certification institutions for the sector:

  • National Qualifications Development Agency for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector established as a autonomous non-commercial organization playing the role of a base institution for the sector;

  • Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector;

  • Staff qualification assessment and certification experts; and

  • Special education establishments for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector [3, 4, 6].

The base sector institution will coordinate activities of the Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre, of the local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector and the relevant federal institutions of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification system (including the Public-Private Council and the National Qualifications Development Agency). The need in the base institution for the sector is due to the fact that the National Qualifications Development Agency (NQDA) will be unable to efficiently control activities of different local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres in the sector due to the high diversity of their core activities. The base institution for the sector will be responsible for the provisions of the Federal Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System being duly adapted to the maximum possible degree to the local specific conditions and requirements of the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector operations [3].

The base institution for the sector will assume full responsibilities of the Public-Private Council and the National Qualifications Development Agency only in application to the local specific conditions of the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector operations.

The Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre will develop, with due consideration for the specific requirements of the sector, the relevant standards and regulatory documents; provide managerial and methodological support to the local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres; and train the experts directly involved in the staff qualification assessment and certification process in the sector.

The local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector operators will play the key role in the staff qualification assessment and certification process in the sector and be responsible for acknowledgement and certification (by the certificates highly valued by the relevant professional communities) of the staff qualifications (supported by the relevant knowledge, skills and competences) in compliance with provisions and requirements of the key professional service standards [4].

The staff qualification assessment and certification experts will be trained by the Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre or directly by the local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres, the trainees being recruited from among the leading specialists of the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector.

The educational establishments engaged in the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification system of the sector will cooperate with the system agencies in the following key areas of activity:

  • The local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres will recommend the applicant to improve their qualifications in the case when the applicant’s education certificate(s) is (are) recognized incompliant with the relevant sector staff qualification standards;

  • Authorized representatives of the relevant educational establishments will act as supervisory members of the examination/ assessment commissions;

  • Authorized representatives of the relevant educational establishments will be certified on a regular basis by expert certificates and engaged as certified experts in the relevant Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector operations;

  • Authorized representatives of the relevant educational establishments will support the Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector in the initiatives to improve the qualification assessment tools, expert training curricula and the staff qualification assessment and certification procedures designed with due account of the local specifics.

Pursuant to the Federal Government Order #06.081.11.0049 of 7.11.2013 “Professional Qualification Assessment and Certification, Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector: Model Design and Appraisal Project”, we appraised the proposed model design for the Centres with an emphasis on their key operations, the appraisal being performed in December 2013. A Model Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre was established under Sochi State University, with the autonomous non-commercial Board of Guardians of the Children’s and Youth Tourism and Excursion Centre being involved in appraisal of the Model Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre operations. The appraisal identified the key problems of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification system design for the sector, and these problems were addressed by the present article.

Given hereunder is the overview of the above problems and the potential solutions.

Problem 1: Need for professional service standards for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector.

The need in the professional service standards is found to seriously complicate the efforts to develop the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification system for the sector and may be rated among the top priority challenges of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector development and implementation process. To solve the problem, serious efforts need to be taken to put together professional standards covering every specific professional activity in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector. In the next stage, the standards will help step up the activities to form the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification system for the sector with an emphasis on operations of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector being put on an efficient basis.

Problem 2: The Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres development and operations management process is poorly supported at this stage by the relevant regulatory, institutional, technical and methodological provisions. The situation is further complicated by the need to have these provisions duly tailored to the specific requirements of the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector.

The process of the above regulatory, institutional, technical and methodological provisions being developed and implemented to support operations of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector is largely hampered by the still inadequate provisions of the available National Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System (with the local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification system for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector being only a subordinate element of the national system). At the first stage, an effective legal framework needs to be established for the National Staff Qualification Assessment and (voluntary) Certification System operations, with consistent requirements to the regulatory, institutional, technical and methodological provisions for the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres and the relevant universal (applicable to every sector) base quality assessment criteria to assess these provisions. And only at the next stage the local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification systems will be formed. No doubt that the basic provisions of the National Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System will need to be adjusted to the sector-specific requirements of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification sub-systems. It should be noted in this context that these adjustments shall in no case radically change the base operational principles of the National Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System. There must be a variable (adjustable) part of the regulatory, institutional, technical and methodological provisions for the local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres foundation and operations that, as found by the expert assessments of the sector specialists involved in the Project appraisal, may come up to 30% of the total provisions.

Problem 3: The initial demand for the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification services is lacking at present. There is virtually no demand for the voluntary Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification service for the reason that the National Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System is still under formation and makes only first steps in the process. The lacking demand may be explained, first of all, by the poor awareness of the potential service clients of the service benefits.

The demand needs to be stimulated by the relevant awareness campaign to support the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification system implementation project using modern communication tools and mass media, with the service benefits for the potential direct clients being duly covered and spelled out and, hence, the prime demand for the qualification certification service being formed.

Furthermore, the demand for the qualification certification services is being largely hampered by the fact that these services are payable, and it is the applicant who must, in most cases, pay for these services. And, since these services are provided on a voluntary basis, the potential clients are reluctunt to demand them and pay for them.

Due to the lacking primary demand for the services and the need in due mechanisms to foster and stimulate the demand, the national government should provide financial support at the first stage of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector development process, with the support being provided to a limited number of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres. After the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System receive the initial boost, the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres will be soon able to operate on an independent basis.

Some financial support for the Centre operations may be provided by the corporate business operators of the sector. It should be noted, however, that the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector services are being provided mostly by small- and medium-size business operators that are quite often in need of financial support themselves.

Problem 4: The fact that the qualification certification services are providable on a voluntary basis and there are no indirect tools of influence on the demand for the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System service and, hence, there is virtually no support for the qualification certification service system development efforts. Therefore, indirect tools of influence on the demand for the qualification certification service need to be designed and implemented.

It should be noted that the the demand for the qualification certification service is largely hampered by the service being non-obligatory. Since the qualification certification service is providable on a voluntary basis, the potential service clients are reluctunt to apply. In this situation, indirect tools of influence on the demand need to be designed and implemented, including, for instance, actions to motivate the employers to have their personnel certified and, may be, even pay for the certification service. The interest of employers to the staff qualification certification service may receive an additional impetus if the duly certified personnel becomes one of the necessary or at least recommendable conditions of the corporate quality management system certification standards and requirements.

The demand for the qualification certification service could be also stimulated by the relevant educational establishments for the reason that a graduate duly certified by the qualification verifying certificate is much more welcomed as a potential candidate for the highly valued positions in his/her vocational area.

Problem 5: Most of the sector employers still fail to realize the competitive advantages offered to them by the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System, including, first of all, good protection from the inflow of poorly trained labour that is unable to assure high quality of the operations.

Furthermore, a relevant motivation system must be put in place to step up the interest of employers to the duly certified personnel as a key for success. The system may offer a set of motivation tools including certain tax benefits for the employers showing good progress in the staff qualification certification process. Additional motivation may be provided by the requirement to have duly certified personnel on at least key positions under the management quality certification procedure.

Moreover, further motivation for the service may be provided by the self-control mechanism being implemented in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector. As soon as participation of the self-controlled organizations in the sector becomes obligatory (as it is the case for the architecture and construction sector, for instance), the self-controlled organizations may make the requirement to have duly certified personnel a mandatory condition for access to the sector market. In this case, the sector employers will have a system of direct motivations for the qualification certification services. Therefore, they will either pay for the personnel qualification certification service themselves or make the qualification certificate a mandatory condition for the staff recruitment process.

Problem 6: The educational establishments are now too reluctant to implement the qualification certification system on a large scale.

It is important that the educational establishments may benefit from (and promote their brand names based on) the broadly publicized news on their graduates being successful in passing the independent qualification assessment and certification procedure that verifies their high competences for the vocational area and the good qualification levels. On the other hand, the educational establishments may have concerns with regard to their graduates being not fully prepared to prove their qualifications, and these concerns may restrain the initiatives to establish the voluntary qualification assessment and certification systems in many sectors, including the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector.

The educational establishments known to provide poor-quality education services will be reluctant to support the voluntary qualification assessment and certification systems being implemented on a large scale for the reason that the demand for their education service on the market will inevitably and rapidly fall down as a result. These educational establishments are expected to come up with demotivation agenda to suppress the demand for the qualification assessment and certification services.

It should be emphasised in this context that the poor-quality education service providers being forced to leave the market – is one of the top priority objectives of the qualification assessment and certification service system. This objective may be attained through a systemic work on the market of educational services to establish necessary environment for the poor-quality education service providers being forced off the market.

The educational establishments known to provide high-quality education services will only benefit from the qualification assessment and certification service system as it will provide additional scores to their excellent reputation on the education service market and the relevant markets of professional services.

One of the general measures to solve this problem is to encourage the educational establishments being broader involved in the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector formation and operation process.

Problem 7: Poor supply of quality professional associations in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector and the inadequate contribution of the available associations in the relevant operations and their development initiatives; and, hence, lack of interest to and financial means for contribution to the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification system in the sector in the role of founders of the local Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres.

There are a few professional associations acting in the sector at present, namely the Tourism and Sports Union of Russia (TSUR); Pan-Russian People’s Tourism Society (PRPTS); Children’s and Youth Tourism and Regional Culture Academy; Association of Fitness Professionals; Spa-Industry Specialists’ Guild; Children’s and Youth Tourism and Excursion Centre with its regional affiliates; and some others. It is the Tourism and Sports Union of Russia (TSUR) that is recognized the most influential and well-organized association in the sector with its broad network of regional affiliates covering the most popular areas of the national Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector. Rated next by importance are the Pan-Russian People’s Tourism Society (PRPTS) with its system of professional associations (including guilds of guides, regional historians, museum associations, tourist clubs etc.); and the Association of Fitness Professionals.

It should be emphasized in this context that the above professional associations of business people acting on the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector market still have very low if any influence on the sector market development process; and they can unlikely be viewed as fully-fledged sector-driving professional associations when compared with the similar foreign associations and their practical experiences.

The poorly developed professional associations acting in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector can be unlikely expected to notably contribute to the professional standards development process and help produce the relevant regulatory, institutional, technical and methodological provisions for the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System implementation in the sector.

In the Model Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System for the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector appraisal process, we found that the professional associations and employers of the sector showed reserved attitudes to initiative due to the qualification assessment and certification process being non-obligatory for them as yet and due to the poor understanding of the financing mechanisms for the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System implementation in the sector.

This problem in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector may be partially solved by formation of a new professional association in the sector to involve every sector employer running business in every professional sub-sector, and use this association as a basis for formation of a base sector institution in charge of the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System implementation in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector.

Therefore, the study identifed the key problems largely complicating the efforts to establish an effective Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System implementation in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector; and outlined the potential ways to solve these problems. The key solutions we have found through the study are the following:

  • Develop professional service standards for every type and area of professional services in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector;

  • Establish an effective legal framework for the voluntary National Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System operations;

  • Develop consistent basic requirements to help work out the relevant regulatory, institutional, technical and methodological provisions for the Expertise and Methodology Setting Centre and the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres with the relevant adjustment options to help tailor them to the specific requirements of the sub-sectors;

  • Organize a public awareness and promotion initiative to help implement the National Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System;

  • Provide necessary financial support to the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification Centres in the start-up stage of the system operations in the sector;

  • Ensure the Centre activities being supported by sponsors from among the business communities acting in the sector;

  • Establish indirect influence system to motivate the demand for the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification services through target actions to increase interest of the sector employers to the staff qualification certification process benefits; and to encourage interest of the educational establishments;

  • Develop a set of motivation tools for the sector employers, including, among other things, certain tax benefits for the employers showing good progress in the staff qualification certification initiatives withing the quality management system certification process etc.;

  • Develop self-control mechanisms in the sector;

  • Step up the educational system involvement in the efforts to design and efficiently operate the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector;

  • Encourage foundation of a new professional association in the sector to involve every sector employer running business in every professional sub-sector of the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector based on a broad regional network organizations; and

  • Actively involve the professional associations in the efforts to design and implement the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System in the sector through stronger mass media coverage and promotion of the staff qualification certification services.

Conclusion

The proposed solutions, in our opinion, will help scale down the barriers and challenges on the way of the initiatives to establish the Staff Qualification Assessment and Certification System in the Recreation, Sport and Health Tourism Sector and provide thereby a facilitating environment for improvements in the competitiveness of the sector personnel in particular and, as a result, improvements in the competitive position of the sector on the whole.

 

References

  1. Assotsiatsiya professionalov fitnesa (Association of fitness professionals) // URL: http:// www.fitness-pro.ru.
  2. Turistsko-sportivny soyuz Rossii (Tourist-sports union of Russia) // URL: http:// www.tssr.ru.
  3. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya. Polozhenie ob otsenke i sertifikatsii kvalifikatsiy vypusknikov obrazovatelnykh uchrezhdeniy professional'nogo obrazovaniya, drugikh kategoriy grazhdan, proshedshikh professional'noe obuchenie v razlichnykh formakh (The Russian Federation. Decree on estimation and certification of qualifications of graduates of educational institutions of vocational training, other categories of citizens who have finished vocational training in various forms [Adopt. by Ministry of Education and Science RF, All-Russian association of employers – RSPP 31.07.2009 № 317/03].
  4. Vetitnev A.M. Creating a System for Assessing and Certifying Qualifications in the Area of Sports-Fitness Tourism as a Factor of Implementing Post-Olympic Legacy Programs /A.M. Vetitnev, N.A. Savelyeva, L.A. Galtsova, T.M. Alimova // European Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 2014, Vol.(3). - № 1. – P. 85-91.
  5. Savelyeva N.A. Osobennosti organizatsii tsentrov otsenki i sertifikatsii kvalifikatsiy v oblasti rekreatsii i sportivno-ozdorovitel'nogo turizma (Features of organization of centres of evaluation and certification of qualifications in recreation and sports tourism sector) / N.A. Savelyeva, A.M. Vetitnev // Izvestiya Sochinskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta (Bulletin of Sochi state university), 2014. - № 1 (29). – P. 41-47.
  6. Savelyeva N.A. Bazovaya organizatsiya kak klyuchevoe zveno v otraslevoy sisteme otsenki i sertifikatsii kvalifikatsiy (Basic organisation as a key link in branch qualification assessment and certification system) / N.A. Savelyeva, O.L. Starodub [Electronic resource] // «Inzhenerny vestnik Dona», 2014, № 1. – Available at: http://www.ivdon.ru/magazine /archive/n1y2014/2288 (free access). – Screen name.

Corresponding author: polina@sochi.com

Abstract

Staff is the leading resource in the recreation, sport and health tourism sector and is a measure of competitiveness of industrial enterprises. So the issues of creation of the sectoral system of assessment and certification of qualifications are essential. The conceptual model of the system designed includes institutional structures such as basic industry organization, expert and methodical center, qualifications assessment and certification centers, educational institutions, as well as evaluators and experts on certification of qualifications. The testing of the model has revealed the key challenges related with creation of the system, including the lack of professional standards; regulatory, organizational and technical and methodological support of the system; the virtual absence of primary demand for the qualifications assessment and certification services; the disinterest of employers and educational institutions; the lack of development of professional sectoral associations and others. The detailed description of the problems and solutions is presented in the paper.