The certification of counsellors in the country will now be done by the Bhutan Qualification and Professional Certification Authority (BQPCA). The Bhutan Board for Certified Counsellors officially transferred the mandate of certifying counsellors to the Authority today. Her Majesty Queen Mother Sangay Choden Wangchuck, the Royal Patron and Founder of RENEW, graced the ceremony.
The executive director of RENEW handed over the Bhutan Board for Certified Counsellors’ mandate to the director of the Bhutan Qualification and Professional Certification Authority or BQPCA.
The Bhutan Board for Certified Counsellors or BBCC was established as an institute to register, certify and train counselling professionals.
With the transfer of the mandate of certifying counsellors to the BQPCA, RENEW plans to establish a professional development training institute for certified counsellors. According to RENEW, this is to update the knowledge and skills of counsellors to continue their practice.
The transfer of the mandate is a part of the Civil Service Reform Act 2022 where the BQPCA was established with three main mandates under the education and skills development ministry.
“Firstly, it is the qualification accreditation, the second is a professional certification and the third one is enforcing the national qualification framework. So, from that point of view, all the certification bodies have to come under one authority. And that is for the harmonisation and standardisation of the certification system in our country,” said Duba, the Director of BQPCA.
According to RENEW, Her Majesty Queen Mother Sangay Choden Wangchuck is the force behind the counselling movement in Bhutan. Under the guidance of the Queen Mother, RENEW has dedicated one of its core services to counselling since its inception in 2004.
Since the institution of BBCC in 2015, nearly 500 counsellors have been certified in four categories.
Kinley Dem
Edited by Phub Gyem
