The mission of Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) is to provide a forum for communication among the doctoral, internship, and postdoctoral training associations in psychology.
CCTC promotes discussion of professional education of psychologists, develops recommendations to be reviewed and possibly implemented by member organizations, encourages communication between CCTC members and associated organizations, and provides comment to the Board of Educational Affairs (BEA), the Committee on Accreditation (CoA), and other APA Boards and Committees on relevant issues.
CCTC as an organization is not part of the APA.
The Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) was established in the mid-1980s as an umbrella forum through which all of the education and training groups within professional psychology could meet, communicate, and take action on areas of common interest.
Overall, it appears that there has been good support for the general concept of and rationale for CCTC by its member councils (i.e., the education and training councils have recognized the need for such a system).
Historically, however, attendance by member councils at CCTC meetings has been sporadic and participation uneven.
For example, as recently as the late 1990s, it was the case that annual meetings might occur with only a few of the training councils represented.
Complicating matters, even with larger attendance, meetings tended to consist primarily of lengthy reports by member councils of their respective plans and activities.
Although useful at the level of information-sharing and relationship-building across the training councils, relatively little emphasis or effort was placed on either identifying areas of common interest or translating such interests into actionable plans or activities.
In the late 1990s, two events occurred which suggested that CCTC might be ready and able to assume a more deliberative and action-oriented approach.
First, the following mission statement was developed and approved:
The mission of the Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) is to provide a forum for communication among the doctoral, internship, and postdoctoral training associations in psychology.
CCTC promotes discussion of professional education of psychologists, develops recommendations to be reviewed and possibly implemented by member organizations, encourages communication between CCTC members and associated organizations, and provides comment to the Board of Educational Affairs (BEA), the Committee on Accreditation (CoA), and other APA Boards and Committees on relevant issues.

As may be evident, this statement emphasized that the purpose and role of CCTC included, but was not limited to, establishing a forum through which the training councils could communicate with one another. In addition to this crucial function, CCTC was also to promote discussion of professional education, develop recommendations to be reviewed and implemented, and encourage communication and provide comments to and from key organizations, groups, and systems throughout the larger education and training community. This declaration of intent appears to recognize that without a system like CCTC, there is no clear mechanism through which the perspectives of all training councils could be heard and reflected in the various policies and processes that affected them.
Second, beginning in 1999, a series of “action-oriented” chairs assumed the helm of CCTC (Drs. Emil Rodolfa, Beverly Thorn, and Nadine Kaslow). With considerable support from the APA’s Education Directorate (which has funded CCTC from its inception), and Dr. Paul Nelson, Deputy Executive Director of the Education Directorate,
and a primary initiator of the CCTC in the mid-1980s (along with Dr. Nathan Perry and others on the Board of Educational Affairs), these CCTC chairs took three substantive steps: 1) expanded the membership of CCTC to include representative “members” of all relevant education and training groups as well as “liaisons” who might have a vested interest in the deliberations and activities of CCTC; 2) encouraged attendance at annual meetings by all member councils; and 3) began considering a range of issues of relevance to professional education and training in psychology that could and should be addressed by CCTC and its members.
As a result of these efforts, the CCTC currently consists of 14 members (i.e., representatives of various education and training councils) and 6 liaisons (i.e., representatives of various groups and systems within and external to APA that would have an interest in CCTC activities).

 

 

 

 

For better understanding of the organization just visit their official website at http://www.psychtrainingcouncils.org/.


 

 


Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.