Education Officer Tom Mason outlines the latest updates and developments from the IBMS Education Department.
We are pleased to have announced the dates for our 2021 series of Verifier and Examiner Training days. Attendance on a training day is a required part of the application process to become either a Registration Portfolio Verifier or a Specialist Portfolio Examiner, but also serves as a refresher for existing verifiers and examiners.
Spaces on the training days will be limited and offered on a first-come first-served basis, so please ensure you book your place via our Eventbrite page, or request any further information about the training days by contacting the Education Department at [email protected]. Please also remember to complete and return the relevant application form beforehand. It can be found in the Verifier and Examiner section of the IBMS website.
We would also like to take this opportunity to remind members that we are continuing to advise that both verifications and examinations should be conducted remotely through the new virtual process. Training officers are still required to apply as per the usual process, and the IBMS will allocate a verifier or examiner on a first-come first-served basis wherever possible. Please also note that we are continuing to process portfolio applications but will only be issuing electronic copies of the portfolios. As these are replicas of the hard copies, they can be worked on in much the same way by candidates, and a hard copy of the portfolio is not required to proceed to the verification or examination stage. We hope that this will offer an easier process going forward for trainees by removing the need for a replacement copy at any time during the training, whilst also offering a greener approach for the environment.
Specialist Diploma candidates currently completing a version 3 portfolio, as well as Diploma in Biomedical Science candidates currently completing a version 1 portfolio, should be aware that a six-month extension has been granted due to COVID-19. These versions were originally due to expire in September 2021 (three years after the next versions were introduced) but they will now expire by the end of March 2022, giving candidates whose training has been affected by the developments regarding COVID-19 the opportunity to make up for time lost. Please be aware that the evidence still needs to be dated within the last three years at the point of examination, though, to ensure it remains current. For any candidates who might still struggle to meet this revised deadline you may wish to consider applying for a swap copy to upgrade to the latest version of the portfolio, since there is currently no deadline for this and it therefore provides more time for completion.
If you would like to pursue this option, then please complete the application form available on the Specialist Diploma section of the IBMS website. Should you have any queries regarding this, feel free to contact the Education Department at [email protected].
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