SIHA’s unique program offers unparalleled education by blending online education and practical face to face workshops to shape talented professionals with a broad sphere of hearing care excellence.
What is SIHA
SIHA is a global training and education program for aspiring Hearing Care Professionals (HCPs), which can be completed in as little as 9 months. Students must obtain licenses to dispense hearing aids in accordance with national or local requirements in the country where they will practice.
SIHA provides a modular, blended learning program offering wider business understanding by broader than traditional HCP education scope and skills to balance commercial aspects of the profession with the technical and medical dimensions.
Watch the video below for an introduction to our online learning platform.
Affiliates
SGHI (Sonova Grand Hearing Institute)
Sonova, one of the world’s leading hearing care companies, is invested in helping people with hearing loss to live a life without limitations. The Sonova Global Hearing Institute is a state of the art training center for current and future Hearing Care Professionals (HCPs) located in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province China. The Sonova Global Hearing Institute was established to provide current and future HCPs with the latest theory in hearing rehabilitation practice and the relevant practical experience to promote best practice in the Asia Pacific region.
Opened in May 2017, SGHI has a program of regular training workshops in the field of audiology, including pediatrics, adult rehabilitation and audiology practice business development. At SGHI learners have access to the latest equipment, local and international teachers and best practice clinic al protocols.
The center is host to the Swiss International Hearing Academy’s HCP program in a blended learning approach consisting of web based learning, face to face workshops, practical sessions and assessments. Co-operations with local and international government and academic institutions open the center facilities to learners in the wider community and international key opinion leaders in the field of Audiology
The Academy of Hearing Aid Acoustics (Akademie für Hörakustik), Lübeck, Germany
The Academy of Hearing Aid Acoustics (Akademie für Hörakustik) is Germany’s central educational institution for hearing aid specialists. It offers vocational training, master craftsman training as well as professional development and continuing education. The Academy’s offerings are based on trade standards and training regulations. Its aim is to impart comprehensive specialist, technical, social and methodical skills. Since 1971, the audiology campus has served as a shared educational venue for the Academy of Hearing Aid Acoustics, the National Vocational School for Hearing Aid Acousticians (Bundesoffene Landesberufsschule für Hörgeräteakustiker) and Lübeck University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule Lübeck) with its bachelor degree course “Hearing Acoustics”.
The Academy and Vocational School work directly together as a learning venue cooperation to implement the vocational training.
Dr.S.R.Chandrasekhar Institute of Speech and Hearing, Bangalore, India
Dr.S.R.Chandrasekhar Institute of Speech and Hearing is a 4 decade old organization working for people with communication disabilities. Our vision is to bring in a world without activity limitation for persons with communication disorders. In order to fulfill this, we aim to develop world class human resources through our academic programs that run the gamut from Diploma in special education (Hearing Impairment) to PhD in Speech and Hearing. Our goal is to provide state of the art diagnostic services as well as rehabilitation for individuals with Speech-Language, Swallowing, Hearing and Balance disabilities. There is a constant effort to achieve greater heights in serving the needy as evidenced by the mobile clinic unit of the institute which conducts rural camps regularly. Several of our alumni are spread all over the country and abroad and have brought accolades to the institute for their professional skills. As an academic institution with good credentials, we aim to keep our students updated with the most recent developments in the field, be it technology, process of assessments or rehabilitation. Seminars and workshops of national level are organized annually catering not only to in-house delegates but for student and staff from different colleges and Universities all over India. It gives a platform for the budding professionals to interact with several experts from specific fields. It also helps in channelizing their thoughts in the right direction for a career choice.
Website: https://speechear.org/ embedded as link ‘Dr SRC Institute of Speech and Hearing’
SIHA in Media
International training offer for hearing care professionals
The Swiss International Hearing Academy, or SIHA for short, was launched at the beginning of 2020. SIHA is a global training and education programme for trained professionals or those still in training in the fields of hearing care and audiology, which the Sonova Group makes available to both its employees and external participants. The specialist magazine spoke to Barbara Münch about what sets SIHA apart and why it makes sense to invest in the training of hearing care professionals worldwide.
The 2020 Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards in Technology. Swiss International Hearing Academy (SIHA) Wins Gold.
SIHA, a leader in innovative distance learning, won a coveted Brandon Hall Group gold award for excellence in the Best Advance in Technology Innovation for the Remote Workforce category. SIHA’s win was announced on December 10, 2020. The winners are listed at https://www.brandonhall.com/excellenceawards/past-winners.php.
SIHA is committed to offering innovative distance and blended learning opportunities to foster better care in audiology globally.
“Technology is the great enabler of human capital management initiatives. It has never been more important than during this rapid evolution of remote work that challenged everyone to instantly adapt,” said Brandon Hall Group Chief Operating Officer and awards program head Rachel Cooke. “Winners of Excellence in Technology Awards are critical drivers of their organizations’ success, especially in these disruptive times. Their solutions resulted in substantial benefit to their business and the human capital management function. That is the ultimate differentiator: the positive business impact of technology.”
“The Excellence Award in Technology also emphasizes the value of collaboration between HCM leaders, business leaders and technology developers. To win, everyone must work together to meet the needs of all stakeholders, especially the end-users. Technology Award winners met this challenge and created value for everyone,” said Brandon Hall Group Chief Executive Officer Mike Cooke.
A panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, and Brandon Hall Group senior analysts and executives evaluated the entries based upon the following criteria:
• Product: What was the product’s breakthrough innovation? • Unique differentiators: What makes the product unique and how does it differ from any competing products? • Value proposition: What problem does the product solve and/or what need does this product address? • Measurable results: What are the benefits customers can expect to experience as a result of using this product?
About SIHA
SIHA is a global training and education program for aspiring Hearing Care Professionals (HCPs), which can be completed in as little as 9 months. Students must obtain licenses to dispense hearing aids in accordance with national or local requirements in the country where they will practice.
SIHA provides a modular, blended learning program offering wider business understanding by broader than traditional HCP education scope and skills to balance commercial aspects of the profession with the technical and medical dimensions.
About Brandon Hall Group, Inc.
Brandon Hall Group is the only professional development company that offers data, research, insights and certification to Learning and Talent executives and organizations. The best minds in human capital management (HCM) choose Brandon Hall Group to help them create future proof employee development plans for the new era.
For the last 27 years we have empowered, recognized and certified excellence in organizations around the world influencing the development of over 10,000,000 employees and executives. Our HCM Excellence Awards was the first to recognize organizations for learning and talent and is the gold standard, known as the ‘Academy Awards of Human Capital Management’.
Our cloud-based platform delivers evidence-based insights in the areas of Learning and Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Diversity and Inclusion, Talent Acquisition and HR/Workforce Management for corporate organizations and HCM solution providers. To learn more visit (http://www.brandonhall.com)
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Meet the team
Bettina Turnbull
Bettina Turnbull is an Australian qualified Audiologist with over 20 years’ experience in research, clinical audiology, practice management and clinical education. Bettina has been involved with Australian HCP program development, teaching and examination since 1998 and was also involved in the development of the ISO Standard for Hearing Aid Fitting.
Bettina has held many advisory positions on government, university and professional body boards and committees and continues to serve in this capacity.
Bettina has worked in the Asia Pacific region since 2015 and during this time developed the Sonova Global Hearing Institute in Suzhou, China, to be one of the leading education hubs for HCPs in China and the region. She is one of the founding members of the Swiss International Hearing Academy and a key author and creator of the HCP Program.
Bettina Turnbull
Barbara Münch
Barbara Münch was born and raised in Germany. After university and completion of her German master diploma in audiology she spent more than 10 years in private practice settings. For about 5 years she was an audiology instructor at a private speech-language pathology school. Additionally she specialized in pediatric audiology. Her experience ranges from practical hearing instrument fitting, pediatric assessment and rehabilitation as well as teaching. Barbara joined Sonova in 2004 working as an international audiology and training manager. Since then she has had the opportunity to train and to present on general audiology topics as well as Phonak products, software and tools in over 61 countries around the world. She has lectured at many international congresses and events and manages international training activities in collaboration with the Academy of Hearing Acousticians in Lübeck, Germany.
Barbara finished her Master of Advanced Studies in 2017 about eLearning management, transcultural communication and leadership. She is developing and managing Blended Learning concepts. Barbara is also one of the founding members of the Swiss International Hearing Academy (SIHA), educational designer and co-author of the HCP Program.
Barbara Münch
Jean Anne Schnittker
Jean Anne Schnittker, Au.D., is an audiologist with experience in pediatrics, clinical education & training, eAudiology applications, and research. Jean Anne holds a Bachelor of Science in Education (College of Charleston,1999), a Bachelor of Science in Communication Disorders (Florida State University, 2001), a Master of Science in Audiology (Purdue University, 2003), and a Doctor of Audiology (University of Florida, 2008). After completing her Master’s degree, Jean Anne worked as a clinical audiologist in a children’s hospital in the United States. Her focus was diagnostic testing and management of children with hearing loss.
Jean Anne began working at Phonak US in 2005 as an educational trainer and moved to Switzerland in 2011 to work at Sonova as a research audiologist in the Science & Technology team. Her focus is education of HCPs to create better hearing, and researching various eAudiology applications, with a special emphasis on remote fitting. She is also a member of the Sonova Hear the World Foundation Board. Jean Anne is one of the founding members of the Swiss International Hearing Academy, and co-author of the HCP Program.
Jean Anne Schnittker
Chloe Yang
Dr. Yang is currently holding several professional positions which include serving as a Senior Audiologist & Training Director in Sonova Group, a director of Sonova Global Hearing Institute (SGHI), a founder of Dr. Yang Audiology studio on Wechat platform, a committee member of Chinese Academy of Audiological Rehabilitation (CAAR), an Academic committee member of Beijing hearing association and a fellow member of American Academy of Audiology (FAAA).
Dr.Yang was graduated from Washington State University & A.T.Still University. She also holds a dual license in audiology practicing and hearing Instrument dispensing.
Dr. Yang has extensive first-hand clinical working experience and has been frequently invited as a professional lecturer at various settings and events such as domestic audiology and rehabilitation forums and conferences. She has extraordinary clinical experience on Audiological diagnosis and pediatric hearing aid fitting.
