Across the world, Professional certification is gaining greater recognition as more professions acknowledge the need for a better trained, highly skilled workforce. Nearly every professional certification body has incorporated a standard examination as part of their certification process. It is generally recognized that an objective measure is required to recognize that the training and education addiction workers receive has been retained. A certification exam is widely used in the industry, and mainstream organizations have used them for years. With these issues in mind, ICBOC has decided to implement a certification exam for addiction workers who are applying to us for professional certification. We feel that such and exam is necessary in order to maintain the highest standards of practice possible.
We feel that our exam needs to be tailored specifically to our workforce of addiction counsellors that are predominantly of First Nations heritage. Therefore the exam needs to include components on First Nations culture and healing practices as well as meet the same standard of excellence in core competencies as other mainstream certification exams. However, since no other certification exam includes a section measuring cultural competencies specific to First Nation cultures, we have decided to create our own exam that includes this essential component.
Our certification exam has two components; a written component and an oral component. The written component has both multiple-choice and essay questions. The oral component will give applicants the opportunity to review their written exam results, expand upon their essay question responses, and express their expertise using the rich oral traditions inherent in First Nations cultures.