I thought some of you might be interested to know the following: as a member of the applied ethology network I recently received an email stating that the ASAB (Association for Study of Animal Behaviour) has introduced a certification programme for animal behaviourists. The ASAB formed a working party in 1998 in order to investigate means of certifying behaviourists and this has resulted in the current scheme. THe guidelines are incredibly strict and as a result many people currently working under the behaviourist banner will not be eligible. At the moment that doesn't mean much, but apparantly (if I read it correctly) there are plans afoot to change veterinary legislation and the plan is that only behaviourists certified by the ASAB Accreditation Committe will be allowed to practice as such. If any of you are interested in reading more, the web site is
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/asab/accreditation/certification.html
My own personal feeling is that it is a good thing that they are emphasising how important it is to have the academic knowledge, but unfortunately they are excluding many people with absolutely enormously vlauable amounts of practical experience and self taught knowledge that cannot be measured. I know that strict certification will be useful in separating the wheat from the chaff,but possibly might lose some of the wheat too? It also means that all the non-accredited courses out there really are worth nothing as they will not be sufficient.
I just wanted to post this so that anyone who is interested can go and have a read for themselves- I'm not advocating or condemning the scheme until we see how it works in practice. In the meantime I'm going to have to go and do alot of work if I want to be certified, seems a phd and being a psychologist just aint enough!!!
All the best everyone!
Helenxx