ICGB student - IASSC Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Updated: 2023

Muscat: The Oman Authority for Academic Accreditation and Quality Assurance of Education (OAAAQA) launched the National Qualifications Framework in the Sultanate of Oman on Wednesday.

The framework encompasses four main tracks, namely the academic track, the vocational and technical track, the professional track, and the technological track, each consisting of ten levels ranging from basic education to advanced tracks equivalent to a PhD. This significant event took place during a prestigious ceremony held at Kempinski Hotel Muscat. It was held under the auspices of Nasser bin Khamis al Jashmi, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Finance.

The inauguration ceremony commenced with an enlightening speech by Dr. Jokha bint Abdullah al Shukailiyah, CEO of the OAAAQA.

She highlighted the significance of the National Qualifications Framework in the Sultanate of Oman and emphasised the framework's structure, objectives, scope, and the manifold benefits it offers. She also recounted the remarkable journey undertaken to develop a comprehensive national framework for qualifications in Oman, which involved benchmarking with regional and international frameworks, conducting a thorough environmental survey of qualifications, formulating a strategy for consultation and communication, and designating responsible entities for governance, management, and implementation.

Dr Al Shukaili underscored the importance of the National Qualifications Framework in realising national priorities and strategic directions, particularly in alignment with Oman Vision 2040. She emphasised the imperative to establish an educational system of international quality, foster community partnerships, and establish a self-regulating and comprehensive evaluation system in line with national standards. She also highlighted the National Strategy for Education's mandate to provide technical and vocational education opportunities for post-primary students.

In her concluding remarks, the CEO of the OAAAQA expressed hope for cooperation from all stakeholders to ensure that the National Qualifications Framework becomes the primary point of reference for general education, higher education, and various training and qualification bodies. "It will play a crucial role in licensing education and training programmes of all levels and types, evaluating foreign certificates, and recognising qualifications issued by any educational or training institution in the Sultanate of Oman." Additionally, two keynote speakers delivered enlightening presentations during the event. Dr Tariq al Sindi, Secretary-General of the Arab Network for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and former CEO of the Education and Training Quality Authority in the Kingdom of Bahrain, shared regional experiences in implementing and developing national qualifications frameworks.

Malik Sarieddine, Regional head of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Middle East, elaborated on the role of national qualification frameworks in recognising professional qualifications, focusing on the ACCA qualification model.

The OAAAQA, empowered by Royal Decree No. (9/2021), assumes the responsibility for governing, managing, and implementing the National Qualifications Framework. The decree grants the Authority the mandate to prepare and develop a comprehensive national qualifications framework, listing Omani qualifications and aligning foreign and international qualifications. With this momentous inauguration, the Sultanate of Oman proudly joins the ranks of 150 countries worldwide that possess a National Qualifications Framework.

EDITOR: I write to express concern regarding the issue raised in various media platforms that several universities in Uganda are currently teaching expired academic programmes.

The discussion started when a Makerere University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical laboratory technology applied to the University of Bristol for postgraduate studies, but was denied because the programme had ended in 2015.

The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), which was founded in 2001 to develop, manage, oversee and advise institutions of higher learning in the design and delivery of quality education, is in charge of accrediting programmes in Uganda.

Through multiple interactions, the institution has increased the legitimacy of higher education quality assurance deliverables ever since it was founded.

The tasking of institutions with going through the procedures for obtaining licences and charters so as to offer education programmes based on the fulfilment of basic conditions has been one of the internal interventions.

To demonstrate the relevance of taught programmes to students’ needs and community outreach through projected research outcomes, NCHE has organised yearly exposition forums at the Uganda Manufacturers Association grounds in Lugogo.

This has allowed the council and the public to access shared brochures as an extra check-up tool to determine which universities may be offering programmes that are not accredited. Despite these admirable initiatives, NCHE has a significant obligation to ask universities to submit their programmes for certification. Along with it, it is factual that new teaching institutions have tripled in number. This implies greater financial contributions to the council for programme certification, but it also necessitates the appointment of additional academic experts to examine programmes and provide timely input that could otherwise be lacking.

Institutions of higher learning too need to take their primary responsibilities to review curricula ahead of time to enable NCHE to do feedback processes before the expiry dates of such programmes. Additionally, the COVID-19 shutdown completely changed the way that instruction is done.

Although many universities now combine online learning with the traditional lecture format, many of the existing courses were for in-person instruction. This is a significant issue that calls for universities to examine their programmes right away and resubmit them for accreditation to the council.

To promote a mindset shift toward inclusivity, diversity and equality in Uganda and to foster economic growth and prosperity for all, Uganda is changing its educational strategic direction to include all students.

Academic training institutions must match their student training strategies to the requirements of society so as to complement Uganda in achieving this goal.

Lack of this results in a mismatch between graduates’ existing abilities and those that are needed, which causes redundant unemployment. To close this gap, rigour regarding curriculum review must be imposed by all stakeholders through their quality assurance offices at macro and micromanagement levels. Uganda has always been a global quality education hub.

All stakeholders in higher education should not provide up this comparative educational advantage at the risk of each stakeholder not doing their share.

In addition, if colleges are allowed to admit students to courses that they are aware are not approved, the repercussions will affect both the institutions and the victims.

To maintain Uganda’s higher education system’s reputation as being of a high calibre, we need to work together to contribute quality assurance procedures for programme accreditation.

The writer is a PhD candidate at University of Ghana, Legon

Founder and CEO of ILoveMyQA.com.

AI has been changing the world. In many cases, it has been making a variety of tasks easier and more efficient. From ChatGPT to the AI used in automation, the work of AI can be seen everywhere.

One new way of automating the testing process to assure that software is meeting standards is by using AI. With AI, the process of automatic testing becomes even faster.

Before AI

Before AI was introduced to automation testing, quality assurance was slower with a mix of manual and automatic processes. In the beginning, software was tested using a collection of manual methodologies and with a team testing the software over and over again to achieve consistency. This was time-consuming and therefore expensive.

Automation machines changed the quality assurance world by combining manual methods with automation tools and open-source frameworks. This still wasn’t the perfect process as it took time and still required some manual work.

AI came around and completely changed how automatic testing worked. Now, instead of testing being partially automatic and partially manual, software and technology are testing completely automatic.

The Benefits Of AI Being Used In Automation Testing

As you can imagine, the use of AI in automation testing comes with plenty of amazing benefits. Let’s take a look at some of the most prominent ones below:

AI Is Faster

One major way AI automatic testing of software has changed the process of quality assurance is by speeding up the entire process. With AI, there is no need to make manual calculations or go through the process of manually testing the software over and over again.

AI Can Learn

As AI completes tasks that humans provide it, one of the main components of this technology is its ability to learn after completing tasks. If an AI does the same thing over and over again, it learns how to better the process over time.

The more AI is used, the smarter it becomes and, therefore, the better at automatic testing it is.

Enhanced Analytics

By using AI, you may receive aspects of analytics that you may not have considered otherwise. AI can find the information that is harder to pick out and turn it into comprehensive analytics. These analytics can help your team locate weak or troubled areas of your software that may have been missed otherwise.

AI Optimization

A feature in automatic testing of quality assurance that manual and many automatic machines fail to have is optimization after completing tests. This enhances the quality of tests completed by the AI and therefore gives you better data.

Potential Issues With AI Being Used In Automation Testing

Unfortunately, using AI in automation testing doesn’t come without its drawbacks. Let’s take a look at some of the main issues that tend to come up when AI is used in this case below:

AI Can Be Difficult To Train

AI systems need to be trained on a whole lot of different scenarios and sets of data if they’re going to be able to effectively respond to specific situations.

To make matters more complicated, when new data gets introduced, the AI will need to be trained all over again—otherwise, it might not produce the most accurate results. AI also tends to struggle with ideas and scenarios that are more complex or nuanced.

AI Can Be Prone To Bias

This one might surprise some people, but unfortunately, it’s true. If the data that was used to train the AI initially is biased, or certain factors don’t mesh well with the algorithms that were used to analyze the data, this can definitely cause issues. For example, let’s say an AI system is biased toward a specific demographic. If this is the case, it’s probably not going to produce very accurate information.

Bugs Or Issues With The Software

As with most software, the AI that’s used to test quality assurance doesn’t come without the occasional bug. It may, for example, flag something that’s not actually an issue or fail to identify very real issues in the software or technology products being tested. This is a big concern, and it can end up leading to a lot of wasted time and resources if human testers need to be called in to verify the results that the AI came up with.

When Companies Should Consider Forgoing AI

While AI has made great strides recently in terms of automation testing, it’s certainly not a perfect system. If your company happens to have limited access to data to train the AI on, you could end up running into issues, in which case, a human touch may be needed instead. Similarly, your company may be better off relying on manual testing methods if you don’t happen to have good financial resources, as AI for automation testing tends to be rather expensive.

Using AI to test something that has high stakes attached to it probably isn’t the best idea either. AI for automation testing is still in its infancy, and it’s important to keep that in mind when deciding whether or not you’re going to use it to test out your latest software or tech product. You don’t want to deal with the potential consequences of the AI software bugging out, so conducting manual tests will probably be your safest bet when it comes to high-stakes situations.

AI Is Making Automatic Testing For Quality Assurance Easier And Of Higher Quality

With the development of AI, the world of quality assurance has evolved once again. Testing software has become faster, better at looking for bugs, and requires less work from the human developer team.

With AI, you can test your software in record time, which is perfect if you are ever on a time crunch. With businesses always looking for ways to speed along different processes, AI is the perfect tool to enhance your software.

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Shanghai Zhongqiao Vocational and Technical University announced that it has received official accreditation from the German Accreditation, Certification and Quality Assurance Institute (ACQUIN).

Authorized by the German Accreditation Council, ACQUIN is an international organization dedicated to assessing the quality of higher education. Its accreditation certificates are authoritative not only in the European Union, but also widely recognized internationally. Top German universities accredited by ACQUIN include the University of Munich, the Technical University of Munich, Heidelberg University, the Free University of Berlin and Eberhard-Karls-Universitaet Tuebingen.

This is the first time that a vocational institution in China has received the German higher education accreditation.

Zhongqiao was a privately run vocational institution established in 1993. It became the first vocational school to offer bachelor's degrees in Shanghai in 2019.

The accreditation was granted after an ACQUIN panel with five experts conducted a two-day online peer review visit in March, carrying out a comprehensive examination of the university according to the ACQUIN accreditation criteria, regarding development strategies and objectives, governance, study programs, research, faculty, financial resources, facilities, quality assurance system and internationalization.

Finally, the expert group commended that Zhongqiao has fully fulfilled the accreditation criteria of ACQUIN with student-centered teaching approaches and offerings of applied skills closely linked to the regional economy.

The international accreditation will help Zhongqiao play a more important role in international education and expand its international impact, according to the university.

"Obtaining ACQUIN accreditation is an important achievement and development milestone of the university's internationalization strategy," said Huo Jiazhen, president of the university.

"It is also an important symbol of the university's transformation from a relatively traditional vocational school to a vocational undergraduate university with a global vision and international landscape."

He said one third of Zhongqiao's graduates would continue their study to pursue masters degrees in China, another one third would go abroad for work or study, while the rest would work in China.

Shanghai has been attaching more and more importance on vocational skills and related education as an important option for the career development of young people and an indispensable supporting force for its industrial and economic development.

The city is trying its best to connect its vocational education and training in line with international standards.

Notably, the city will host the WorldSkills Competition in 2026, which is one of the highest-level event for vocational skills. By organizing this international event, China wishes to promote a social atmosphere that respects skills and craftsmanship as well as to enhance skills standards in the country.

Northeastern Health System physicians and Emergency Medical Services employees recently offered their services performing physical evaluations for more than 1,000 area high school student athletes and band members.

“It is the annual physical exam that high school/junior high athletes are required to have for the following year’s sports participation,” said NHS Vice President of Quality Assurance and Outpatient Nursing Services Julie Jordan. “They go through a health and physical check to include vital signs, vision, scoliosis check, etc. They do these every year at the end of the year typically for Fort Gibson and Tahlequah.”

Physicals are also known as a pre-participation physical evaluation, according to TeensHealth. The physical exam helps reduce risk for students to participate in school activities.

“We feel like this is a valuable service that helps the student athletes and band members of our communities,” said NHS EMS Director Mike Cates. “They all have to have a physical to compete in their particular sport or band so this allows a convenient avenue to get the majority of students examined without bombarding the local physicians’ offices or clinics to obtain a physical.”

NHS started performing this service several years ago, NHS now also works with the Indian Capital Technology Center, who brings students from the Health Career Certification Program to assist.

This year, the physicians, students, and EMS employees performed 471 physicals on Tahlequah students and 485 physicals on Fort Gibson students.

“We have done this so long we all know our role and we all really work well together,” said Cates. “My team is very community oriented. We are grateful to be involved in community activities that promote wellness and safety. We want the community to know that we are here to help and they can count on us when they need us.”

HENDERSON, Nev., May 25, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ontrak, Inc. (NASDAQ: OTRK), a leading AI-powered and telehealth-enabled health care company, is proud to announce its exact certification by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as a Credentials Verification Organization (CVO) for the element of license to practice. This certification further validates Ontrak's commitment to maintaining the highest standards of quality and compliance in its suite of health care solutions, enabling its customers and prospects to effectively meet their accreditation goals.

NCQA, a recognized leader in healthcare quality assessment, evaluation, and certification, grants this prestigious certification after a voluntary review process and evaluation of a CVO’s management of various aspects of its data collection and verification operation, and the process it uses to continuously Boost the services it provides.

"We are thrilled to have earned NCQA Certification as a Credentials Verification Organization," said Brandon LaVerne, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Ontrak. "This recognition is a testament to our unwavering commitment to quality assurance and our ability to support our customers and prospects in meeting their accreditation goals. By achieving this certification, we continue to demonstrate our dedication to maintaining the highest standards of credentialing verification in the healthcare industry."

"Achieving CVO certification from NCQA demonstrates that Ontrak Health has the systems, process and personnel in place to thoroughly and accurately verify providers' credentials and help health plan clients meet their accreditation goals," commented Margaret E. O’Kane, President of the NCQA.

The importance of NCQA certification as a CVO cannot be overstated in today's rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. Ontrak's customers and prospects can be confident that they are partnering with a healthcare services company that meets the highest industry standards, enhancing their ability to provide quality care to their members and ultimately improving patient outcomes.

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About Ontrak, Inc.:

Ontrak, Inc. is a leading AI and telehealth-enabled healthcare company, whose mission is to help Boost the health and save the lives of as many people as possible. Ontrak’s suite of products, including WholeHealth+, Ontrak Identify, Ontrak Outreach, Ontrak Engage and Ontrak Access offers customers multiple ways to activate and provide care pathways to treatment for members of the behavioral health population who would otherwise fall through the cracks of the healthcare system. We engage individuals with anxiety, depression, substance use disorder and chronic disease through personalized care coaching and customized care pathways that help them receive the treatment and advocacy they need, despite the socio-economic, medical and health system barriers that exacerbate the severity of their comorbid illnesses. The company’s integrated intervention platform uses AI, predictive analytics and digital interfaces combined with dozens of care coach engagements to deliver improved member health, better healthcare system utilization, and durable outcomes and savings to healthcare payors.

About the NCQA:

NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations. It also recognizes clinicians and practices in key areas of performance. NCQA’s Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS®) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA’s website (ncqa.org) contains information to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. NCQA can be found online at ncqa.org, on Twitter @ncqa, on Facebook at facebook.com/NCQA.org/ and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/ncqa.

Learn more at www.ontrakhealth.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230525005332/en/

Contacts

Jaime Prieto
Chief Marketing Officer
646-510-0893
Jprieto@Ontrakhealth.com