COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PRACTITIONER PROFILING FOR OCCUPATIONAL PROFESSIONALISATION, SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND CONTINUOUS QUALITY ASSURANCE

Abstract

Regardless of the worldwide acknowledgement of the importance of community development, the challenge of professional occupational recognition remains, intensified by the lack of practitioner profile data. Raising practice standards through standardised, cohesive and effective movements drives professionalism, guided by a practice policy framework that describes its practitioners’ ethical code, standardised and quality-assured knowledge and skills to be measured against regulated occupational norms and standards. This article provides a broad overview of the requirements for occupational professionalisation linked to a countrywide practitioner profile survey conducted to inform the South African Community Development Practice Policy Framework that guides occupational professionalism pre- and post-professionalisation. Keywords: community development, community development practitioners, continuous professional development, practice policy framework, practitioner profiling, professionalisation