Recruiter Accreditation Scheme Update

The Recruiter Accreditation Scheme (RAS) initiative was conceived three years ago, in 2012, when the AQR Board expressed its concerns about the lack of a professionalisation process for recruiters.

Consultations

It was acknowledged that the recruiters are a vital part of the research process but lack of training and, therefore, accountability was a cause for concern. Since then the MRS has taken on the baton and a steering party was established, comprising recruiters, field managers and researchers. It constructed a draft paper of guidelines with which to build a framework for the accreditation scheme followed, in January, by a full-day consultation at the Barbican. Here, 60 industry professionals working in operations and research met to discuss these draft proposals and to build on them.

Surveys

Surveys have been carried out with members of the AQR and the ICG, and recently the main MRS Board approved a budget to enable recruiters to be acknowledged as professionals with their own accreditation scheme and CPD programme.

Workshops

Debrah Harding, MRS managing director, is to invite recruiters to attend workshops in the North and South to ask for their help in taking this process forward. The first of these is on September 10th in Manchester, and it will be web streamed live to enable those who are unable to attend to log in and assess what exactly this initiative will mean for them. Please encourage as many recruiters as possible to either attend or access on line.

I look forward to taking this process forward, with all parties collaborating to make the industry stronger and more professional.

 

Julie Fuller
CEO, Acumen Fieldwork

This article was first published in InBrief magazine, October 2015
Copyright © Association for Qualitative Research, 2015