Contact Centre Canada’s National Certification Program: Recognizing the Contribution of Industry Subject Matter Experts

At Contact Centre Canada we are dedicated to resolving key human resources challenges that can inhibit business success. One resolution that we are thrilled to be able to give an update on is the progress of our National Certification Program, an initiative meant to lift the stature of the contact centre profession.

Industry Validation Group overseeing the development of the assessment
tools for the Contact Centre Canada Team Leader Certification Program.
November 2010; Toronto, Ontario

Contact Centre Canada would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the invaluable contribution of the Industry Subject Matter Experts to the development and validation of the certification exams for these occupations.

Certification is an on-going evaluation and review process to ensure that professionals meet industry established knowledge, skill and ability standards. These standards are typically achieved by individuals through education, professional development, and work experience. Consequently, being certified in one of the five contact centre occupations (Agent, Team Leader, Forecaster/Scheduler, Manager, Director) means an individual has been assessed through the Contact Centre Canada certification program; more importantly, it means that the certified individual has achieved the industry set knowledge, skill and ability standards and that the individual continues to demonstrate improvement in the occupation.

There are two major components of each certification program. The first is a written multiple choice exam that assesses occupation-relevant skills and knowledge using realistic scenarios describing plausible on-the-job situations. The second component of the certification programs is a work simulation which allows an evaluator to observe candidate’s performance in a realistic, job-relevant situation and is based on typical situations and tasks performed in each contact centre role.

Industry Subject Matter Experts play a crucial role in the development of job-relevant certification exams. They help determine the most important occupational knowledge and skill areas to be covered in each certification. After the multiple choice test questions have been developed by testing experts, the Industry Experts review the initial test questions to assess their realism and relevance to the occupation of interest. Industry Experts also assess fairness of the exam questions toward members of minority groups. Based on these assessments, they suggest revisions to improve the quality of the exam questions. Finally after all the revisions of exam questions are done, Industry Experts review the entire test and set the pass mark for it.

Industry (Content) Experts are indispensable in the process of developing a certification exam. Contact Centre Canada has had the privilege of working with Industry Subject Matter Experts for each of the occupations. They have brought forth their expertise to ensure top quality certification exams. Contact Centre Canada is grateful for all the effort and invaluable input that these groups have provided. Without them, the development of the high quality certification programs would not be possible.

Contact Centre Canada is looking forward to the finalization of the National Certification Programs for the remaining contact centre occupations (Manager and Director) and to the implementation of the Certification programs for all five contact centre occupations. These National Certification Programs will transform the contact centre industry by recognizing contact centre employees as certified professionals. These certification programs will also allow Canadian contact centre professionals to promote themselves and further develop into more valuable and skilled employees.