Timelines for the credentals process in Canada by the Allaince.

[emad]

HI,

I applied for my education credential assessment in Canada Oct. 2011. Has anyone applied in 2011 for credtial assessment. Let us share our timelines here? Seems there is backlog according to the alliance website. Even they have not updated information since August 2011.

cheers

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[emad]

Since when do you see up dates ?
I file i can access from Alliance website syas credentials appliacnts up date for the week of August15, 2011 .

I am accessing the website from inside canada !!! that is weird .. Are you inside canada ?

[Mathijs Hamelink]

hello,

No I am not in canada. It's odd that it wont update for you. Maybe this link will help.
http://www.alliancept.org/pdfs/crede...tus_update.pdf

[Mathijs Hamelink]

ok I've send a link (will be approved), if you want to PM me your PIN number I could check for you

[emad]

Thanks Mathijs
Yes, I recieved the the up date file.
it says for my file number we have received and accepted the documents we needed to begin your assessment

[Mathijs Hamelink]

it means they have started reviewing your paperwork

[emad]

I think it should mean they begin assessing my education because I applied in Sept. and in Nov. they sent me asking for one document to be notarized

[elseohjay]

Nice topic here. Everything you guys have said about the alliance applies completely to me. I even started a thread on the forum about my frustration with the Alliance some times ago but got minimal response.

http://www.physiobob.com/forum/physi...valuation.html

Nice to see other people having similar issues, it will be nice if we can share ideas and help one another along. I applied for credentialing with the Alliance in November 2010 and got back my first evaluation result in December 2011. Yes, it took 13 months as against the 14-20 weeks the Alliance continues to advertise on the site. The outcome: Not eligible for PLAR! Basically, whoever did my evaluation would not give any credit for most of the courses as they want more detailed information about the courses curriculum and also some clarifications about my transcripts. There are at least 20-30 PTs from my schools currently practising in Canada and at least 5 of those were in my set. The course requirement for the duration of our training was the same, so there is no room for individual differences in the course content and none of the of the previous applicants from my school had experienced this. It is quite baffling that after all the excruciating delay of over year, I was back to where I started from. I had since been in touch with my university and they are in the process of responsibly to what we think is the misunderstanding from the Alliance point of view (fingers crossed)

I am aware that the Alliance changed their standard a couple of years ago to which the Alliance attributes the delay. It would however have been a bit considerate of the Alliance to state clearly what they now require ab-initio rather than make all applicants go through a painful wait only to be told to go get what they now need, which in most cases is not different from what was initially submitted.

It is quite evident that the Alliance in essence has modified the credentialing process to at least a 4 stages for most applicants: Initial Evaluation => Supplementary evaluation => PLAR (if Lucky) => Final Evaluation. The implication of this is that the process has become appallingly slow and out rightly clogged up. What's the price to pay for that? - Wait for it,...........an increased in Evaluation fee. Priceless isn't it! ...and their is of course as stated already, the issue of the evaluation report that you need to complete a separate course to be able to decipher.

It is difficult not to think that there is some self preservation drive at work here. I hope I am wrong, but applicants who have got their evaluation results recently and those who have been following the so called status update on the Alliance website, would realize that most if not all the initial evaluations appear to now being carried out by external assessors, while subsequent (supplementary evaluations and PLAR) are carried out by the Alliance "credentialing officers". It would appear that the credentialing officers keep their workload via the supplematary assessment; hence the applicants inevitably have to pay for the extra cost of to cover the initial assessment carried out by the external assessors.

The Alliance is by all intent and purpose the first point of contact for foreign trained PT regarding PT practices in Canada. I have to say, if first impression is supposed to last longer, I hope in this case that we get over this 'cause this is certainly not in good light.

[Mathijs Hamelink]

Hello elseohjay,

wow 13 months is an extremely long time... I myself am hoping that I can get my diploma's translated (high school and university), and then start the credentialling process.... Have you made any progress at all into finding out exactly what was wrong? or did you just recieve a letter stating no sorry, not up to standard?

[elseohjay]

Hello elseohjay,

wow 13 months is an extremely long time... I myself am hoping that I can get my diploma's translated (high school and university), and then start the credentialling process.... Have you made any progress at all into finding out exactly what was wrong? or did you just recieve a letter stating no sorry, not up to standard?

It was a general problem as far as I can see. There was a notice placed on the website last year promising that the backlog was going to be cleared by the end of 2011. That has now been removed and they still have backlog of more than 1000 applicants spanning 51 pages according to their status update page on the website http://alliancept.org/pdfs/credentia...tus_update.pdf

As I said above, for some reason the Alliance has created a bottleneck in the credentialing process which is now causing this huge problem for applicants. What's more annoying is that they are still displaying this 14-20 weeks on their forms and correspondence with applicants. The whole process is quite frustrating really.

[emad]

The outcome: Not eligible for PLAR! Basically, whoever did my evaluation would not give any credit for most of the courses as they want more detailed information about the courses curriculum and also some clarifications about my transcripts.

So, why did not you provide that information with the application from the begining ? What clarification the Alliance about the transcript ? I assume you have received your education in UK, Am I coorect ?

cheers

[elseohjay]

So, why did not you provide that information with the application from the begining ? What clarification the Alliance about the transcript ? I assume you have received your education in UK, Am I coorect ?

cheers

All required information as per Alliance requirement were provided with initial applications. In my initial post on the thread, I stated that I was not the first applicant from my university doing the Alliance credentialing, I am not even the first from my year of study. I am very familiar with the Alliance credentialing requirement. Take a look at the link of the status update I posted in my preceding post and you will find out that majority of the applicants that applied within the last 15 months or thereabout appear to get this "we have mailed your assessment result, we need more information" outcome on their initial evaluation regardless of how many previous applicants have applied from the same institution. It is one major reason why the process is now clogged up. There also appear to be a correlation between this trend and the use of external assessors to do the initial evaluation.

The point here is, if the requirement for the presentation of course details has been changed by the Alliance, it is in everyone's best interest that the Alliance made that clear before initial documentations are accepted for evaluation rather than make everyone submit as per usual, wait over a year only to be told that we now require this and that. It clogs up the system and that's quite evident now isn't it.

Are you currently going through the process yourself or have you recently gone through?

[emad]

All required information as per Alliance requirement were provided with initial applications. In my initial post on the thread, I stated that I was not the first applicant from my university doing the Alliance credentialing, heck I am not even the first from my set. I am very familiar with the Alliance credentialing requirement. Take a look at the link of the status update I posted in my preceding post and you will find out that majority of the applicants that applied within the last 15 months or thereabout appear to get this "we have mailed your assessment result, we need more information" outcome on their initial evaluation regardless of how many previous applicants have applied from the same institution. It is one major reason why the process is now clogged up. There also appear to be a correlation between this trend and the employment of external assessors to do the initial evaluation.

The point here is, if the requirement for the presentation of course details has been changed by the Alliance, it is in everyone's best interest that the Alliance made that clear before initial documentations are accepted for evaluation rather than make everyone submit as per usual, wait over a year only to be told that we now require this and that. It clogs up the system and that's quite evident now isn't it.

Are you currently going through the process yourself or have you recently gone through?

Hi else,
I just want to know why all that is happening. To be clear, English is my second language so whcih might cause some misunderstanding in the discussion. The same thing you said was mentioned by Dana another applicant here within the same thread which is :

The Alliance asks for information which had been provided with the intial application !! and then you say the alliance wanted more information like course descripation !! Does that mean your school will send same course information for the second time. Yes, I read that many form your same school are licenced or registered now, but did they provide same course and documents as you did!!

Yes, I applied around 5 months ago ............... I am begin to feel worried after reading your experience and another applicant here

[elseohjay]

Hi else,
I just want to know why all that is happening. To be clear, English is my second language so whcih might cause some misunderstanding in the discussion. The same thing you said was mentioned by Dana another applicant here within the same thread which is :

The Alliance asks for information which had been provided with the intial application !! and then you say the alliance wanted more information like course descripation !! Does that mean your school will send same course information for the second time. Yes, I read that many form your same school are licenced or registered now, but did they provide same course and documents as you did!!

Yes, I applied around 5 months ago ............... I am begin to feel worried after reading your experience and another applicant here

No problem mate, I understand you clearly. I have highlighted the issues raised in my evaluation result as I understand it with my institution and provided a copy of the evaluation report to the school. It is quite likely they will send the same documents as they can not be amended, lest it will be misrepresentation. I think they will have to provide clarification and appendixes about some course contents and some areas that might have been highlighted on course curriculum but not represented on transcript due to the fact that they were not examined as stand alone modules but were covered extensively as part of a broader course. An example that comes to mind here is "Human growth and development (child psychomotor development)". While we didn't cover this as a stand alone module, this was covered extensively under pediatrics neurorehabilitation. This has never been an issue with the Alliance prior to recently. To the best of my knowledge, the Alliance credentialing officers are quite familiar with this type of variation in presentations and overlap of course content across different countries. As I said before, it is looking increasingly likely that the external assessors who now do the initial evaluation are not yet familiar with this variability or the Alliance has become a bit more prescriptive as to how course information should be presented. Either way, it is causing a huge problem for most applicants.

Do you know of anyone from your institution who have completed or are well advanced into the credentialing process? It may give you some ideas of what to expect in your case. You may be one of the lucky ones, who knows

[emad]

No, I do not know anyone from my school just going through the process now, but i know some are registered now. My file number says ...we received and accepted the documents we needed to begin your assessment......

[Crystal R. Westergard]

Dear Emad,
My friend who worked at my clinic would phone them. Perhaps you could phone and ask them why they have posted that they "need to begin your assessment", and haven't already begun it? I have been told they are quite helpful and nice to talk with on the phone. Also, as others suggested, contact your aquaintances who have gone through and gotten registered and ask them if this happened to them and how they got past it.
Crystal

[emad]

Crystal,

Applicants( Dana and Else ) here are saying the Alliance does not answer phone calls and does not reply emails.

[elseohjay]

Crystal,

Applicants( Dana and Else ) here are saying the Alliance does not answer phone calls and does not reply emails.

They stopped taking phone calls and would not reply to emails for the latter half of last year 2011. There was a notice on the Alliance website to that effect, that has now been removed. So am assuming they have now started taking calls. Try and call them. I don't want to discourage you, but I don't think it would matter much than to confirm what your status update already shows. I believe they are processing the applications as per when they were received and yours will be evaluated when your time comes around.

[emad]

Putting applicants on hold for 8 months just to ask for one paper or document is not good way to deal with applicants. Where is the professionalism which the Alliance and Canada are talking about through websites of the Alliance and Canadian government. To the moment, I sent my application then the Alliance sent me few papers as introducation letter to confirm the documents I sent and what I need to send. From these papers, I got the imperssion the Alliance is experienced in dealing with applicants because there are certain requirments for documents from Indian, pakistan and british applicants. Furthermore, the Alliance asks for the transltaed papers to be notarized.

The 2 papers from a report of assessment attached with this thread here at the begining show that Creteria 5 is composed of 7 sections mainly seems to be report about the theortical subjects or modules studied by the applicant, I was wondering how about the practical traing ! Does the Alliance mention that within the report ?

[emad]

I tried to attach here with this post the Canadian physiotherapy curriculum 2009 so all applicants here could have an idea what is canadian physiotherapy education . The attchement did not work well. So I will just put the link here for anyone interested. It is called National curriculum guidlines.

Canadian Council of Physiotherapy University Programs

I think that is not greatly different from what I studied. The positive thing , in Canada, the schools or the Allaince are considering different modules to replace or eqaulize thier modules. For example, biomechanics could be credit for Movement or motor Anaylsis

[elseohjay]

Hi folks,

Finally some positive movement on my case. So my school forwarded the clarifications re the transcript/course description and this morning, I got a final eligibility from the Alliance. It took 3 weeks from the date the College confirmed they sent the clarifications and me receiving the eligibility letter. The major issue as I stated before was because some course contents and some of the foundation area modules listed on our course curriculum were not represented on transcript due to the fact that they were not examined as stand alone modules but were covered extensively as part of a broader course. Also we did not sit exams on some modules as mode of assessment were group presentations and workshops, hence they did not reflect on the transcripts though we spent several months covering them. This had been previously clarified with the alliance by my school. According to the Alliance, every time the Alliance change their standard, they stopped making use of all previous references and clarification for students from the same school and the first set of prospective applicants from the same school after the change are treated as "unprecedented cases" until a new pattern is established. The problem is the Alliance change their standard every 2 years, so I expect this to be an ongoing saga.

[emad]

Hi folks,
Finally some positive movement on my case. So my school forwarded the clarifications re the transcript/course description and this morning, I got a final eligibility from the Alliance. It took 3 weeks from the date the College confirmed they sent the clarifications and me receiving the eligibility letter. The major issue as I stated before was because some course contents and some of the foundation area modules listed on our course curriculum were not represented on transcript due to the fact that they were not examined as stand alone modules but were covered extensively as part of a broader course. Also we did not sit exams on some modules as mode of assessment were group presentations and workshops, hence they did not reflect on the transcripts though we spent several months covering them. This had been previously clarified with the alliance by my school. According to the Alliance, every time the Alliance change their standard, they stopped making use of all previous references and clarification for students from the same school and the first set of prospective applicants from the same school after the change are treated as "unprecedented cases" until a new pattern is established. The problem is the Alliance change their standard every 2 years, so I expect this to be an ongoing saga.

Congratulations else ! what did the Alliance asked you to do as courses ?
Yes, the main point is the precedented and unprecedented cases. I was reading through the Alliance information and PDFs and tried to figure out some conclusions or assumpations....When the Alliance writes about the case applicant checking the instituation recognition that could mean the case is considered unprecedented which will take long time. So from your case, Did the Alliance write on status update regarding your case ( checking level focus of education and recongnition status of instituation )

[elseohjay]

Congratulations else ! what did the Alliance asked you to do as courses ?
Yes, the main point is the precedented and unprecedented cases. I was reading through the Alliance information and PDFs and tried to figure out some conclusions or assumpations....When the Alliance writes about the case applicant checking the instituation recognition that could mean the case is considered unprecedented which will take long time. So from your case, Did the Alliance write on status update regarding your case ( checking level focus of education and recongnition status of instituation )

Thankfully, I didn't have to do any additional course as I met all the criteria on second review. The only requirement would have been "Context of Physiotherapy Practice in Canada". I had completed this module earlier on while waiting for the outcome of the initial evaluation. The easiest way to do this in my case was to complete the module book prepared by the Alliance. I think I paid CAD250 or thereabout. It is a very easy enough module to read, you don't have to write any exam, just complete a declaration form and have it attested by a notary. You'll get an email from the Alliance a few weeks afterwards confirming that you have completed this requirement. Note: As discussed before, this option may not always be the best in all scenarios. Depending on your final evaluation outcome, you might be able to fulfil this requirement by completing other courses which also include contents of other requirements such as integrated practice/primary health care etc.

Yes, I had the status: "We are checking level focus of education and recongnition status of your institution" for a very long time. I didn't know what it meant at the time. It is now only becoming a bit clearer. The issue of "precedented" and "unprecedented" cases is still a curios one for me. I am still struggling to understand why the Alliance would chose to ignore prior knowledge and information they have about a particular programme/school and treat future applicants from the same school as unprecedented simply because there are a few changes in the credentialing standard. Surely they can very well identified what the additional/new requirements are and identify that as potential PLAR areas for future applicants from these schools in cases where such applicants have not completed further training e.g masters to meet the new requirement. Sending such credentials for "checking of focus of education and recognition status" despite evidence of previous applicants from the same school is pointless in my opinion and it is the main reason why I think the process is now so slow.

You know, the not so funny thing is, the Alliance just posted on their site that they changed their standard again this January (2012). As my case was based on standard prior to this date, that means all of the clarifications/documentations used in my case will now not be of use in dealing with future applicants from my school/year of study as they will be treated as unprecedented cases under the new standard. Curios isn't it?!

[emad]

Yes, I see that new applicants from your school will be dealt as unprecedent. The good new thing, the Alliance included in the handbook short information about each country which shows that main point is the documents and paperwork.

The status for you "We are checking level focus of education and recongnition status of your institution" indicated unprecedent case .....While my case status is "we recieved the documents we needed to begin your assessment " which really is not easy for me to understand which stage is it the appliaction because I applied 6 months ago. So, have your case status showed (we received the documents we needed to begin your assessment )?!

[elseohjay]

That would mean that they have not started looking at your file yet. Have you received the introduction letter from your credentialing officer? Once you received that, your status will change to either: "we are assessing the level and focus of your training....." or "we are assessing the content of your document/training..." depending on whether you are being treated as a precedent case or not.

[emad]

That would mean that they have not started looking at your file yet. Have you received the introduction letter from your credentialing officer? Once you received that, your status will change to either: "we are assessing the level and focus of your training....." or "we are assessing the content of your document/training..." depending on whether you are being treated as a precedent case or not.

I do not know what introducation letter ? I received letter with PIN number which asks for documents that was 4 month ago !