BEIJING, June 4 -- Shanghai is to check up on the variety of professional qualifications and certificates on the market and get rid of the fly-by-night ones.

    The Shanghai Personnel Bureau announced yesterday it would team up with the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau to publish a list of certified qualifications and programs for locals' reference after the check.

    It came after the Ministry of Human Resources issued a notice to rectify qualification programs in the country late last year.

    "It is an important and necessary job to curb problems that pop up during the qualification awarding and exam process and maintain the rights of professionals," the bureau said yesterday.

    The checks will focus on professional qualification setting, certification awarding institutes, exam organizers, training and fee charges.

    Qualification certification awarding institutes are required to report their programs to the two bureaus.

    Overseas qualification programs are also included in the checks, bureau officials said.

    "Similar qualification programs will be merged, while those fly-by-night programs will be ordered to stop their training, testing and certificate awarding immediately," the bureau's notice said.

    The country has more than 1,000 professional qualifications and certificates in total. Shanghai is home to about 3,300 training institutes, with hundreds of certificates and qualifications.

    At present, training institutions can issue qualification certificates so long as they registered with the personnel bureau, the labor and social security bureau or some social organization management departments.

    This has meant that many qualifications are similar. For instance, applicants saw nearly 10 kinds of human resources agent qualifications on the market.

    "That's quite confusing and even misleading for applicants," said Wang Tao, an official with the Shanghai Personnel Bureau's professional testing authority.

    (Source: Shanghai Daily)