Revised Standards of Competence for Surveyors and Cartographers
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Revised Standards of Competence for Surveyors and Cartographers

Recognition of New Training and Education Programmes

The FIG/IHO/ICA International Board on Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors and Nautical Cartographers (IBSC) was jointly established in 1977 by the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) to promote, develop and maintain international standards of competence for hydrographic surveyors. In 2001, the International Cartographic Association (ICA) joined the Board so that standards of competence could also be provided for nautical cartographers. The IBSC also reviews training and education programmes against its standards and currently provides international recognition to 61 programmes and schemes.The IBSC held its annual meeting in April this year and reviewed a record number of 18 programmes. The Board was able to grant recognition to 11 programmes for Hydrographic Surveyors (four at Category ‘A’ level and seven at Category ’B’ level), including one new programme.  The Board also recognised the ninth programme for nautical cartographers and a second national scheme for individual recognition.  The other seven submissions were recognised conditionally.  Worth noting is the increasing number of institutions successfully using e-learning and blended-learning tools to deliver elements of their programme.

Progress on Separating Cat A and Cat B Standards

The Board reviewed the progress made in its revision of the Standards of Competence, following the decision to separate standards for category ’A’ and category ‘B’ programmes and to update their content to comply with the latest scientific and technological developments.  The new set of standards describe competencies in terms of Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) that provide levels of understanding for associated content.  Four publications, namely S-5A, S-5B, S-8A and S-8B, and accompanying guidelines provide the framework under which submitting institutions can constructively arrange their resources to provide courses that will meet the standards.  The standards are being separated with learning outcomes defined in accordance with expectations at the category ‘A’ and the category ‘B’ levels.  They are not prescriptive in terms of time allocation and method of delivery, allowing each institution to build an educational programme that adopts a teaching and learning process in accordance with the Standards.

Progress

The Board completed its work on the Standards of Competence for Hydrographic Surveyors Category ‘A’ (S-5A), by incorporating a significant number of suggestions and recommendations received from the broad hydrographic community during the consultation phase.  The draft S-5A is being submitted to the 8th session of the IHO Inter-Regional Coordination Committee (IRCC8) for endorsement.  Subject to this endorsement and subsequent approval, the new publication will be in force from September 2016 to complement the new publication S-5B that has already been approved.  The two documents will supersede the existing publication S-5 Edition 11.1.0.The Board completed its first draft of S-8B – the Category ‘B’ Standard of Competence for Nautical Cartographers.  Draft versions of S-8B and the category ‘A’ level S-8A will be available for circulation and comment by the end of the year.  Both will follow the approval process in 2017 and will eventually replace the current Edition 3.1.0 of S-8.Next MeetingThe next meeting of the IBSC will take place in March 2017 in Wellington, New Zealand when more than 20 programmes and schemes are expected to be reviewed.  Work that is undertaken on the standards throughout the year will also be reviewed.

The composition of the Board and details of its work are available on the IHO website at:

www.iho.int > Committees & WG > IBSC 

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