HKCTC Seminar on Integrity and Professional Development in Testing & Certification Industry

The Seminar on Integrity and Professional Development in Testing & Certification Industry was organized by the Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC) and co-organized with Association of Construction Materials Laboratories, HKTIC, HKICA, ICAC, HKQF and VTC. The value of testing and certification services depended on its credibility. Therefore, this seminar aimed to bring together representatives of relevant public organizations, professional bodies and gurus in the industry to share their wealth knowledge in the two major pillars of credibility included Integrity and Professionalism.

In the beginning, Mr. Kesson K.S. Lee (Secretary-General, HKCTC) gave a welcoming remarks. He briefed the existing status of Testing and Certification Industry.

The first speaker was Mr. Raymond Wong (Deputy Vice President - Global Electrical & Electronics Consumer, SGS; Director - Corporate Public Relationship & Marketing, SGS Hong Kong) and his presentation entitled "Poised to Serve Better and Meet Future Opportunities". Mr. Wong explained different opportunities such as globalization, rise awareness on quality, health & safety and environment, concern on corporate social responsibilities, etc.

Then Mr. Wong introduced the two major elements of SGS that were People (i.e. Trust, Integrity & Professionalism) and Knowledge (i.e.Regulation, Technical and Market). In addition, Mr. Wong mentioned their Code of Integrity in which annual Integrity Training Program and E-learning were provided to employees. For professional development, they separated into Academic Knowledge, People Development and Skill Training. There were 6 levels from "Lead Self" to "Lead Others" to "Lead Others and Manage Business" to "Lead Leaders and Grow Business".

The second speaker was Mr. Lawrence Chung (Deputy Executive Director of Hong Kong Ethics Development Centre, ICAC) and his topic named “Professional Integrity for Testing and Certification Industry – A Perspective from the ICAC”.

Mr. Chung said to fulfill the Law which was a minimum requirement. The highest requirement was Professional Integrity. Professional Integrity included 3As that were Alert (Common Integrity Risk), Aware (Anti-corruption Law) and Act (Ethical Decision Making). For prevention of Bribery Ordinance, it need to avoid another 4As (Agent, Accepts/solicits, Act and Approval) stated in the following diagram.

Finally, Mr. Chung introduced corruption prevention plan to us. It started from “Codes & Guidelines”, “System Controls”, “Ethics Training” and “Ethical Leadership”.

The third speaker was Mr. Michael Lee (Chairman, Association of Construction Materials Laboratories) and his presentation topic was “Integrity in the Recent Past of Construction Testing and Certification”. Firstly, Mr. Lee introduced three high risk testing operations included Nondestructive testing, On-site testing and Sampling of test specimen.

For Nondestructive testing, it was high risk because ultrasonic test for welding was no electronic records to prove the presence of defects. For On-site testing, slump test for concrete workability had not done but result was “pass”. For Sampling, it only selected good test sample or pretreated sample. Then Mr. Lee shared the following case of handle over capacity situation.

Finally, Mr. Lee suggested to perform refresher Course on “Code of Conduct” every 3 year and developers to employ material testing laboratory directly through Architect, not by construction company.

Mr. Felix Chan (Convenor, Education and Training Subcommittee, TIC Industry Training Advisory Committee (ITAC), Qualifications Framework (QF)) was the fourth speaker and his topic entitled “Introduction to the Specification of Competency Standards for Testing and Certification”. Mr. Chan introduced the 7-level hierarchy of QF and which aimed to foster life long learning. Then he also briefed the Specification of Competency Standards (SCS) and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) mechanism.

Testing, Inspection & Certification was one of nineteen ITACs and SCS covered different competency requirements at different stages of testing workflow. Moreover, TIC industry had separated into three main functions included “Laboratory/On-site Testing (LOT)”, “Inspection (INS)” and “Certification (CERT)”.

The application of SCS in TIC industry included “HRD & HRM”, “Benchmarking & Recognition” and “Education & Training”. Finally, he reminded the coming TIC SCS Industry consultation period would be from 1 Nov 2013 to 30 Jan 2014. Moreover, the consultation session would be held on 13 Nov 2013 from 3:30pm to 5:30pm in the Auditorium, CGO, Tamar.

Mr. Dominic Lam (General Committee Member, HKTIC) was the fifth speaker and his topic named “Professional Certification Scheme for Testing Personnel: Why and Who needs it”. Firstly, Mr. Lam introduced the industry profile and its role such as supporting manufacturing, export and other service industries for Hong Kong economic.

Then he introduced the Professional Certification Scheme for Testing Personnel (PCSTP) for demonstration of individual’s professional competence. The overall scheme was showed in the following table. In order to continuous improvement, the scheme encouraged to accumulation of continuing professional development units (CPDUs) for re-certification.

At the end, Mr. Lam used an example “CEO vs King of Hong Kong Style Milk Tea” to explain what ever how high position you are, you are still not a professional and got nothing if missing integrity!

Dr. Lawrence Chan (Deputy Executive Director, VTC) was the sixth speaker and his presentation was “Professional Development and Continuing Training for Practitioners of the Testing and Certification (T&C) Industry”.

He introduced VTC’s different T&C programmes to support industry. The existing T&C In-service training were separated into 9 professional areas included “Chinese Medicines, Construction Materials, Environmental Protection, Electrical Appliances, Food, Furniture, Garment & Textile, Jewellery and Toys. In additional, they established Testing & Calibration Centre in July 2013 and operated under ISO 17025 requirements, as well as, planned to seek HOKLAS accreditation in July 2014.

The last speaker was Ir. Dr. Tommy Lo (President, Hong Kong Institution of Certified Auditors) and his topic entitled “Auditor Training for the Testing and Certification Industry”. He introduced the factors to be considered by auditor for Product Certification Scheme.

Then he briefed the auditor in Testing and Certification Industry included Laboratory Assessment, System Certification Assessment and Product Certification Technical Auditor. Currently, five product certification technical auditor registrations were available and they were Cementitious products, Fire engineering products, Tiles products, Aluminum windows products and Sanitary ware products.

Q&A Session

Mr. Lawrence Chung said there were near 4000 cases received in ICAC those cases were ~62% from private companies, ~30% from government department and ~7% from public bodies.
Mr. Raymond Wong discussed about Integrity Culture which not only for staff but also for customer. He added that SGS sent 20 MC questions quiz about integrity for staff monthly.
Mr. Dominic Lam answered how to increase the recognition of PCSTP such as industry acceptance and HOKLAS considered in Approved Signatory.

Reference:
HKCTC: http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/hkctc/about.htm
HKTIC - http://www.hktic.org/
VTC T&C In-service Trainign Information Portal –http://t-cert.vtc.edu.hk/