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Global standards for HR adopted

Tim Ekandjo, President of IPM Namibia and Marius Meyers CEO of the South African Board of Personnel Practice.

Tim Ekandjo, President of IPM Namibia and Marius Meyers CEO of the South African Board of Personnel Practice.

The President of the Institute of People Management of Namibia, Tim Ekandjo, officially launched the HR Standards & Global HR & Management Qualifications at the Polytechnic of Namibia on Wednesday.
During the launch Ekandjo announced that the 4th IPM Conference is pegged for 13 to14 October and all HR professionals are encouraged to register for the Conference.
Ekandjo said that IPM Namibia’s primary mandate was to ensure that the HR profession becomes a respected discipline.
“Our agenda is therefore to ensure that HR members can hold their heads high alongside their colleagues in other professions. We can however only do so when we are properly structured and when there is professionalism across the board, and not with a select few,” he said.
“The HR Standards will enable us to benchmark ourselves against international standards designed in Africa for Africa! The significance of the qualification we are launching here today is that it was designed in Southern Africa, by Africans for all of Africa meaning it is relevant to the challenges we face as HR professionals in Africa,” said Ekandjo.

Namibia has become only the 6th country in Africa to adopt the global standards which will give the HR profession credibility.
The Chief Executive Officer of the South African Board of Personnel Practice, Marius Meyer also present said, “We need to strengthen HR’s credibility but we cannot do so without standards and inconsistent practices, and this qualification will therefore raise the bar.”
The HR Standards qualification was work-shopped by over 468 HR professionals across Africa who identified 11 HR competencies. The qualification has attracted great interest across the globe with over 9 provinces in South Africa already implementing it, the USA, UK, Australia and the Netherlands in full swing and in Africa South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Ghana and Namibia being well on course.
A total of 6 qualifications were launched with the two notable ones being the National HR Standards qualification and the National Auditing qualification.
The launch was co-sponsored by the IPM Namibia, Polytechnic of Namibia, Olthaver & List, Telecom Namibia, Air Namibia, Nampower, Emergence Growth, Institute of Leadership & Management, SHRM and the SABPP.

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