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Accreditation  News

Time to connect again

3 minutes read • 22 May 2023
Accreditation  News

APAC CEO Michael Carpenter reports from a recent conference held by the Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation (CLEAR).

Along with 250 participants from Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand I attended CLEAR’s 7th International Congress on Professional and Occupational Regulation (and the first since the COVID-19 pandemic) in Dublin from 3 to 5 May.

The conference focused on the themes and trends that will shape the work of regulatory organisations in coming years.

There were some fascinating presentations centred on the concept of kindness and compassion in regulation.

This led onto several discussions on the type of organisations that regulatory bodies want to be – and whether their role is to put in place systems to catch and punish those registrants who transgress or whether they should place a stronger emphasis on how they encourage their registrants to succeed.

Both these themes will, I think, continue to be debated and I suspect that both will ultimately inform and shape how we do business at APAC.

There was also a strong focus on how regulatory organisations engage with diversity, equity and inclusion – in terms of both how they encourage their own stakeholders to embrace the principles of DEI and also how they embrace and measure that engagement as employers.

I sit on CLEAR’s DEI committee and there is a lot of work happening in this area which will be really helpful in informing APAC’s own work in this space.

It would be remiss of me not to spare some kind words for our excellent hosts, who ensured that conference delegates were treated to some local fare, including steak and ale pie, and bangers and mash as well as providing us with some enthusiastic recommendations on where you could find the best pint of Guinness in town, should any delegates be minded to test it.

After what felt like such a long period of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic it’s great to be able to connect again with international colleagues who are dealing with many of the same challenges as APAC in their own jurisdictions.

Hearing from them and having the time to chat helps inform our work and ensures that we keep pace with global best practice in our field.

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