Education and training for records management professional

Bt : Md Pazmi Bin Paijan

Abstract
Education and training for records management professional is an important part of developing a
well manage of records center and archive. As world is revolutionized, so do the record in term
of conservation and preservation that need professional who can handle them with care.
Keywords: Records management professional, Education, Training

Introduction
Records itself mean a thing that constituting a piece of evidence about the past, especially an
account of an act or occurrence kept in writing or some other permanent form. When talk about
it, there must be someone who is professional in this area to manage all of the records. As result
all the records that well manage can be used as evidence as mentioned earlier. Not just that,
records that well managed have their own value and can be used for future reference. That is why
valuable records is the weapon in the future if it is manage well.

Education
Professional is the specialized of set knowledge, skills and attributes. Knowledge is acquired in
an education programme as they need to know how is about their profession. This is because
they need to know how to implementing the knowledge during their professional education.
Training and education is important to grow the knowledgeable professional in every area
including records management (Anderson, 2007).

Educations in definition in this discussion of records management professional are:
1. The systematic instruction, schooling or training given to the young in preparation for the
work of life; by extension, similar instruction or training obtained in adult age. Also, the
whole course of scholastic instruction which a person has received [emphasis added].
Often with limiting word denoting the nature of the predominant subject of the
instruction or kind of life for which it prepares, as classical, legal, medical, technical,
commercial, art education (original and added emphasis)
2. Culture or development of powers, formation of character, as contrasted with the
imparting of mere knowledge or skill. Often with limiting word, as intellectual, moral,
physical (original emphasis).
In education, it is encourage reflection and providing foundation knowledge, a problem solving
approach and learning habits that reflects which is transferable. This will be not remaining same
for three or four years in this rapid changing world. New approaches to knowledge we thought
we had mastered, new ways of working with new tools, undertaking courses or learning to work
with new technologies. Practicing professionals remain engaged by learning about new
developments in their profession. In short, like all professionals, records managers and archivists
are lifelong learners. Knowing how to go about gaining new knowledge and skills does not come
naturally, but without this knowledge, the individual and thus potentially our profession, is at
risk of stagnation. A major responsibility of professional educators is therefore to help students
learn to learn (see for example Anderson, 2006; Thomassen, 2001).

Training
Taking the three quotations together, we can see that the term “training” can cover a wide range
from instilling service orientation to task-based activities. Training programmes usually aim to
provide participants with a new skill quickly and are often very short: between half a day and
two days, sometimes extending to a week or more. The quote from Carpenter (1874) is by far the
least appropriate for application to professional training and trainers, but it does serve to
illustrate an extreme way in which “objectivist” approaches to training could be taken. The best
employing organizations also accept responsibility to nurture employees’ professional
development, providing an environment that encourages lifelong learning. Hoy (2004) describes
a range of processes and pathways for continuing professional development and sets them out in
a four-part model of learning outcomes and strategies: competency-based learning; workplace
learning; reflective learning and self-directed learning. The model is illustrated with descriptions
of the use of learning circles, reading groups, mentoring relationships, accredited formal studies,
communities of practice and other strategies within the National Archives of Australia (Hoy,
2004, pp. 13-15).

More recently, the Australian Society of Archivists and the Records Management Association of
Australasia have collaborated to produce a draft Statement of Professional Knowledge
(ASA/RMAA Joint Education Steering Committee, 2004), in order to create a benchmark for
course recognition process: an exercise made necessary by the downgrading of the revised
edition of the Competency Standard to vocational training qualifications. The document
distribution and use statement says:

It is expected that the document will be used by those developing, delivering and reviewing:
1. Recordkeeping education and training,
2. Recordkeeping programmes within organizations,
3. Recordkeeping role and duty statements, and
4. Professional recognition for recordkeeping and other professions (ASA/RMAA Joint
Education Steering Committee, 2004, p. 2).
A total of 33 fields of expertise, or necessary skills and 20 principal aptitudes are set out in the
EUROGUIDE LIS Competencies and Aptitudes for European Information Professionals (ECIA,
2004, p. 8). However, even the list of 33 necessary skills includes a range of communication,
technology and management skills that are not confined to the information professions. Beyond
the constrained situation of the Australian Records and Archives Competency Standard (National
Finance Industry Training Advisory Body, 1997), there is without doubt a range of both
competencies and capabilities or aptitudes that are acquired through education programmes.
With no mandatory obligations, it leads to inadequate and limited capacity to manage records in
the organization since the budget is not allocated, there is an absence of proper storage facilities,
absence of vital records and disaster preparedness and recovery plans and worse of all there are
no core competencies identified and assigned responsibilities to the right professionals. The role
of records managers, although virtually present in every type of organization, is assumed by
other administrative personnel. The role can range from one of a file clerk to the senior
information officer of an organization ( Johare, 2006).

Records management professionals (National Archives of Australia, 2002) are responsible for all
aspects of records management, including the design, implementation and maintenance of
recordkeeping systems and their operations, and for training users on records management and
recordkeeping systems operations as they affect individual practices. A records manager as
explained in one archival and records terminology glossary is a person “responsible for the
administration of programs for the efficient and economical handling, protecting and disposing
of records throughout their life-cycle.” An archivist on the other hand, is responsible for
“appraising, acquiring, arranging, describing, preserving and providing access to records of
enduring value according to the principles of provenance, original order and collective control to
protect the materials authenticity and context” (Pearce-Moses, n.d.)

Records education in Malaysia
In Malaysia, there should be enough records professionals produced by the local university i.e.
Universiti Teknologi MARA at the range of 80-100 students per year (Universiti Teknologi
MARA, 2008, 2009). The University through the Faculty of Information Management has
offered a Bachelor of Science in Information Studies with the specialization in Records
Management since 2001. The program balanced the many facets of managing records (including
specialized records particularly medical records management and legal records management) and
archives and focused on the usage and application of information technology in building records
systems. The Faculty has the foresight of the much-needed records and archival competencies in
dealing with the new generation of recordkeeping practices in organizations in order to ensure
the organizations’ business integrity and continuity (Universiti Teknologi MARA, 2001).
It must therefore be emphasized that there is a crucial need for the Malaysian records
professionals, especially the archivists at the National Archives of Malaysia, to reassume their
role – to make a shift in recordkeeping and records functional requirement. They should be
considering the idea of records audit strategies to enhance their justification for mandatory
existence in order to meet the challenges of the changing society. For those serving the National
Archives they have to visualize themselves as the manager of the nations’ records responsible for
the continuum value rather than permanent value to ensure the continuity of the “corporate
memory” of Malaysia. They have to change their “traditionally perceived archival mindset”
(Acland, 1992) to manage the records as organization information strategy especially in meeting
the legal and audit statutory demands.

In other countries
In developed countries, particularly the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America
(USA), the usefulness and benefit of systematic records management in business has promoted
companies to provide education and training for those engaged in records related activities
within their organizations. Wallace, Lee and Schubert point out that the most obvious way for
records managers to enhance their resourcefulness is through education. The training and
upgrading of skills can be achieved through workshops, vendor-sponsored programs,
professional seminars, and college or university-level courses (Zawiyah & Chell, 1998).
In the UK universities, records management is being offered either strictly as a separate
programme or as an individual module taught together with archives, or library and information
science. In some universities outside the UK, records management is offered together with either
management, business, computer science or history (Zawiyah & Chell, 1998).
In many countries, the present situation is characterized by a lack of local expertise and
experience, and education and training is being carried out by bringing in foreign experts.
Institutions, like the Malaysian Institute of Management, from time to time invite foreign
Certified Records Managers to conduct workshops and seminars, which are the only means of
providing in-service training. This situation implies that businesses are now becoming aware of
the need for proper management of their records, and that records management has become the
concern of everybody from the production worker to top level management. In the past, it has
been a common perception that records should be left to junior staff to handle (Zawiyah & Chell,
1998).

Records management is one area of training that, at present, is best provided for within the
universities world-wide, and universities, including those in Malaysia, should take the
opportunity that this offers to expand provision for records management courses. It is important
to re-emphasize that records management is a segment of information management that needs
prompt attention. A well planned and relevant curriculum is crucial. The curriculum must be as
comprehensive as possible, enabling the courses to produce competent and professional records
managers (Zawiyah & Chell, 1998).

Development continuity for professional
Even records managers possessing a postgraduate qualification in the subject will find that the
skills so diligently acquired may be forgotten or become outdated as the years go by. Professions
such as the law have dealt with this problem by introducing a formal requirement for its
practitioners to attend a certain number of training courses a year or be disbarred. A less tangible
need is to feel that there is an opportunity for career progression – that there is something further
to aim at once the entry level qualification has been gained. Librarians have for a long time had
the opportunity (although not the formal requirement) to become chartered, and the Society of
Archivists has recently introduced a scheme allowing its members to earn points towards
becoming registered by attending further training courses. Of perhaps even greater importance is
the need for the opportunity to think broadly and intellectually, through further study, about
one’s chosen specialism. Practitioners often find that in meeting the daily demands of their job,
they lose the time and opportunity to reflect on the more theoretical aspects of records
management which underpin their daily practice, and which may have drawn them to the
profession in the first place (Westwood, 1998).

Conclusion
This is important to have educated and well trained professional in records management because
to implement a correct way of conservation and preservation need someone that experienced to
handle records. This is because some records are valuable and can be evidence, sentimental value
and some can be a country heritage.


References
Karen Anderson, (2007) "Education and training for records professionals", Records
Management Journal, Vol. 17 Issue: 2, pp.94-106

Aliza Ismail, Adnan Jamaludin, (2011) "Records professionals: an invisible
profession in Malaysia", Records Management Journal, Vol. 21 Issue: 1, pp.69-75

Margaret Pember, (1998) "The rise of the ‘new age’ records management
professional: records management education and training in Australia", Records
Management Journal, Vol. 8 Issue: 3, pp.63-75

Zawiyah M Yusof, Robert W Chell, (1998) "Records Management Education and
Training World‐Wide: A General Overview of the Current Situation", Records
Management Journal, Vol. 8 Issue: 1, pp.25-54

Sarah Westwood, (1998) "Records management education and training at Liverpool:
a year of change at LUCAS", Records Management Journal, Vol. 8 Issue: 3, pp.39-
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