EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL

Che Nur Afiqah Bahirah bt Che Zamri

Faculty of Information Management
Universiti Teknologi MARA
Puncak Perdana Campus
chenurafiqah@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to highlight the needs of education and training for records
management professional. This article told the readers about the existence of record
professionals, education and training initiatives and training for records management
professionals. Education and training must evolve in order to fulfill the needs of all of these
professionals in this complex environment. Plus, the education and training for records
management professionals has to be more effective. Hope this article can give more information
about the education and training for records management professional.

Keywords: education and training initiatives, records management, records professional, training

INTRODUCTION

According to (University of South Wales, 2018), records management can be defined as

the process of systematic management of the records in which the organization creates and
receives during the courses of the business. The records management will controls records in all
formats starts from creation to the maintenance and disposal. Since most of the records and
information are the organization resources, it is important for the records to be managed
effectively. (Asogwa, 2013) had stated that the main goal this program is to monitor the records
throughout their cycle. The well organized and efficiency of records management could do is
providing reliable information that may be needed for an organization to be well functioned. So, a
well-trained records professional is needed in information searching and retrieval in order for the
organization to facilitate transparency, accountability and reliability.
 According to (Barnes, 2014), education and training are two different things. Education
can be defined as learning the theory as in traditionally, the education is the knowledge that you
already have the foundation. On the other hands, training is something different from education.
Training gives the individual the skills that we might needed rather than just knowing. The training
itself can be specific according to your preferences. The statement is supported by (Pallavi,2013),
in which stated that training is the nerve that suffices the need of fluent and smooth functioning of
work that can helps in enhancing the employees work quality and the organization development.

THE EXISTENCE OF RECORD PROFESSIONAL

According to (Aliza and Adnan, 2011), the profession of record professionals still remain
unfamiliar specifically to Malaysian. It was proven true with the existence of National Archives of
Malaysia that has been exist for more than 50 years , there are still a lot of people that does not
know what exactly the Archives being doing and why there is a need for the records to be
managed and preserved professionally. The similar situation happened in Africa as mentioned by
(Asogwa, 2013) that revealed a terrible state of archives and records management with a little
efforts in discussing on the impacts of information technology on records management. Compared
to more developed countries, the records managers in Africa still need a long way in mastering
the basics of electronic records management as most of the offices still preferred to print out the
paper documents even though the records had been documented electronically in the computer.

From the survey that had been done by (Wamukoya and Mutula, 2005), they found that
the public organizations in Malaysia has less attention when it comes to records management
although the records and information management is a vital element in improving the
performance, transparency and accountability of an organization. This statement is supported by
(Umi and Zawiya, 2009) in which they stated that it is still not a norm in Malaysia to publish the
policy or guidelines in which will set a standard in a department or organization although the
National Archive of Malaysia (NAM) had conducted a project called e-Strategy for Preservation
of Government Records and Archives (e-SPARK) in order to establish the policies to be used as
records management standard.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING INITIATIVES

According to (Mc Leod, Hare & Johare, 2004) , there have been different approaches and
initiatives that had been done by School of Informatics at Northumbria University in introducing
the conversion Masters in Information and Records Management (IRM). This approach happened
as the records management had not be able in succeeding to establish itself as a career of choice
for the newly qualified undergraduates although there were job offers for records managers
outside London. The education initiatives continue as the university already acknowledged the
needs for a Masters level course for records specialists with the development of distance learning
specifically and exclusively for records specialists from anywhere. Those specialists had been
attending annual residential school and keep in touch as they exchanged their knowledge
regarding their workplace environment. This kind of approach had gathered interest in some
practitioners who are actively in both the strategic and tactical levels since it was first been
introduced in 1996. And this course had turned to be students’ choice in making records
management as first career choice upon leaving the university.

Furthermore, according to (Lamont, 2014) , the records managers are no longer being on
the sidelines in the organizations as they are now move to the centre of an enterprise with the
authority and ability in giving impact to institution’s operation and strategic planning. In addition,
(Buchanan et al., 2017) also stated in their study that there are increasing awareness among the
educators and researchers in library and information science (LIS). Most of these educators
assume that the graduates of records management programs has expand the responsibilities in
information creation, preservation, organization and retrieval as the master’s graduates are being
accepted in employment in different fields and also institutions.

However, the researchers also stated by having the distance learning, the specialists who
were also students , it was hard to keep the group on track due to different workplace environment
and time zone so this type of learning were heavily rely on ICTs to connect. This statement is
supported by (Asogwa, 2012) as the researcher stated in the study that most of the records keeper
and archivists in Africa are not professionally trained in records management as they are recruited
based on their secondary school certificates as they getting promotion or by seniority without
having formal training in records management or archives.

In addition, (Buchanan et al., 2017) also mentioned in their study that the hands-on
experiences are more preferable rather than theories that had been practiced over the years in
the educational syllabi. The evolution of records keeping whether it in printed or digital format
might need the records managers to keep up to date on how the records being kept rather than
depending on the theories learnt in school alone. The records managers and supervisors also
need to have the soft skills and direct experiences with the tools and technologies in which most
of the students of records management are not fully exposed when they were in school.

TRAINING FOR RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS

According to (Asogwa, 2012) in the outcome of the study had shown that universities in
Nigeria still did not have basic records management policies in order to manage ordinary records
and also they were not considering in having electronic records. The policies and guidelines that
they had were not regularly reviewed or being keep up to date from time to time as well as not
having trained records management consultants in order to give advices although it was
recommended by the IRMT and the World Bank. In (Asogwa, 2013) other studies also mentioned
that there was a serious problem of technophobia in offices across Africa, mostly among the older
employees that reluctant in learning on how to operate the technology and utilize it. Due to this
problem, there was a lot of librarians, records managers and archivists that having in inadequate
skills in information technology. There were also mindset that with the new emergence of
technology, the old professionals felt threated in their fields of expertise. So they decided to give
up in learning the new technology.

(Asogwa, 2013) also added that even the institutions had the established records and
archives management policies and other equipment, the institutions were still lacking of qualified
records professional and also financial support in order to maintain the records. The respondents
of the survey also stated that all of them never been to any kind of training on records
management. The other graduates also could not contribute much help as they were also not
being professionally trained in records management program or the management of electronic
records. Most of the current position that they gained were pushed through ranks and knowledge
that they acquired of records management with acknowledgement from their senior colleagues
who had retired or no longer worked with the organizations. Primarily, the training was aimed in
improving the quality and the effectiveness of the staffs working in order to meet the skills and
manpower needed. So, in conjunction to create the awareness among the records professionals,
the staffs should be sponsored to attend the conferences, seminars and so on as 80 percent of
the respondents from the survey claimed that training of records management would improve the
electronic records readiness. There is a need in competencies in between records managers and
archivists with electronic records management as the electronic records managers communicate
and collaborate with information technologists for corporate electronic records management.

In order for the records managers to remain relevant in these digital age, there are a few
aspects that those managers need to be considered such as ensuring the records created in the
old system will be remained in good condition even after the organizations had migrated the
documents to the new place. The records professionals also should equip themselves with the
knowledge of information technology so they can act as a source of knowledge to the people
needed. Finally,the records professionals also should have variety of other educational
background in order to improve the electronic records competencies in all levels.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, there is still a long way to go in emphasizing the need for records
professionals. Society should value the records professionals for their skilled knowledge in
executing the records policies and procedures and also acknowledge their role in helping the
organizations in managing various workplace pressures and demands. It also should be known
by the public that records professionals would deal with vast amount of people by negotiating
others’ compliance with records management policies. It should be known that if records are
manage properly, it will turn to be important assets that will bring benefits to the individuals and
organizations as the effective recordkeeping would acts the evidence in business transactions in
between many individuals, groups and organizations. So, until the records professionals finally
being recognized and being acknowledge for their role in the society, they must embrace the
records managements as strategic and mission critical in setting the new light of the role of
effective management in the organizations
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