CERTIFICATION IN THE AUSTRALIAN IT PROFESSION

Regulation of those practising in the Information Technology (I.T.) profession is an issue which historically has resulted in emotive arguments that detract from the positive contributions that regulatory controls could make to the profession. This paper seeks to identify the range of available regulatory controls and focuses upon Certification which provides the profession with a voluntary and self-regulating mechanism. Current I.T. related/certification schemes are identified and the common arguments for/against certification are explored. Finally a proposal by the Australian Computer Society (ACS) for implementation of a certification programme is described.