NKE Study

Well folks, I certainly am finding life a little on the full side these days. There's a little over a month to go before the NKE exam, and I am studying like a mad thing. It's a very intimidating exam- 70% is a pass, and the fail rate is 60%, which is somewhat nervous-making. So we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I go to work, come home, and study. My Kobo is loaded with PDF documents on labour law and HR Best Practices so I can read on the train during my commute, and my desk is breeding documents from the looks of things.

For those of you not in Canada, or otherwise unaware, the NKE is the National Knowledge Exam, and it is step one in the process of achieving CHRP, or Certified Human Resources Professional, status. In order to write the NKE you must now have a Bachelor's degree, and, as of January 2013, 3 years experience in your field. After you successfully pass the NKE, you may call yourself a CHRP Candidate, and you have five years to write the NPPA, or National Professional Practice Assessment. Once you pass the NPPA, you are a CHRP, and you have to recertify every three years with a certain number of CE credits.

In short, it's a big deal. I'm very excited, and very nervous, and very, very busy, so you probably won't hear a whole lot from me until afterwards.

CHRP Status

Well, folks, I am officially registered to write the first CHRP exam, the NKE, or National Knowledge exam, on May 5th. That means I'm well into study mode, so blog postings may be even less frequent than they are right now. Trying to fit in blogging, studying, and a 40+ hour workweek along with a job search is frankly kind of exhausting. Still, I'm looking forward to writing the exam, and hopefully being able to call myself a CHRP candidate.

I know that feelings as to the value of this designation are somewhat mixed. Personally, I favour a licensing designation that requires CE to remain current, because it cuts down on those people who have never learned anything new since they left school however many decades ago, and I think a national designation for HR professionals is a good thing. I also think the changes to the program (such as requiring the completion of a bachelor's degree, and, as of 2013, three years' experience in the field) should help increase the standards and make the CHRP designation more valuable.

So, I'm studying, and both looking forward to and dreading the exam. Any of you Calgary people, I will see you there!!