Abstract:

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) certification has become one of the assets enabling the recognition of the knowledge, skills and competencies of the persons working in a wide range of jobs and projects. Regarding this fact, the General Directorate of GIS, Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, was involved in the process of national vocational standards and qualifications development for GIS related jobs between 2013-2016. Accordingly, the main aim of this paper is to explain the process and give information about the results of the research projects and collaborative works realized in order to develop national vocational standards, vocational qualifications and a certification system for GIS Operator (Level 4) and GIS Specialist (Level 6). The overall process was mostly realized in collaboration with the Earth and Space Sciences Institute of Eskisehir Technical University (former Anadolu University), as well as other participants from various institutions, and continued along with two supplementary research projects that were aimed at the development of a comprehensive certification system for the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. The research projects comprised the stages of detailed analysis and evaluations about the administrative, legal and technical requirements in accordance with the national vocational qualifications system and ISO/IEC 17024 standard, and were followed with the development of an integrated software to manage all the stages of the vocational certification, online examination, question bank development and quality assurance system. The results are believed to be valuable and triggering inputs for the development of other necessary vocational standards and qualifications for GIS related jobs, raise awareness for the necessity of vocational certification and help improve the context and quality of the GIS training/education curricula in the country.

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