Certification

A certification, or qualification, is a designation earned by a person, product or process. Certification may be a synonym for licensure but more often licensure applies only to persons and is required by law (whereas certification is generally voluntary). Certification of persons indicates that the individual has a specific knowledge, skills, or abilities in the view of the certifying body. Similarly, certification of products indicates their reputed suitability for a specified purpose (e.g. a computer system might be certified as being fully compatible with a large software package).

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The rise of the Internet has led to a new kind of certification for websites. Website certifications exist to certify the website's privacy policy, security of their financial transactions, suitability for minors, etc.

Related Topics:
Privacy policy - Security - Financial transactions - Minors

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People become certified through training and/or passing an exam. Products become certified through testing. Individuals often advertise their status by appending the certification abbreviation to their name (e.g. "Jane Doe, RHCE"). Strictly speaking, most certifications do not grant post-nominals and it is usually the professional certifications that do.

Related Topics:
Exam - Testing

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Certifications may be perpetual, may need to be renewed periodically, or may be valid for a specific period of time (e.g. the life-time of the product upon which the individual is certified). Although it is more common in regards to licensure, sometimes as part or whole of the renewal of an individual's certification, the individual must show evidence of continual learning — often termed continuing education — or earning continuing education units (CEU).

Related Topics:
Continuing education - Continuing education unit

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Certifications are offered through a certification body. This is usually a business organization. Sometimes, the organization's business is directly related to the certification, as in a software firm that certifies individuals as competent to use its products. In other cases, an organization (often a not-for-profit organization) exists wholly, or in large part, to offer a particular certification. Whatever its nature, the certifying body determines the policies of the certification program. Potential consumers of a certification wish to understand the nature of the certifying body and the certification process. An individual who bears a designation but appears unable to perform competently is said to be a paper tiger because their resume suggests that they are more effective than they actually are.

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An increasing number of lawyers are choosing to be recognized as having special knowledge and experience by becoming certified specialists in certain fields of law. According to The American Bar Association, a lawyer who is a certified specialist has been recognized by an independent professional certifying organization as having an enhanced level of skill and expertise, as well as substantial involvement in an established legal specialty. These organizations require a lawyer to demonstrate special training, experience and knowledge to insure that the lawyer's recognition as a certified specialist is meaningful and reliable. Lawyer conduct with regard to specialty certification is regulated by the states. The ABA?s Standing Committee on Specializationis an excellent resource.

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Certifications are very common in industry, and in particular the computer industry. The National Organization of Certification Agencies (NOCA) is a US-based organization which helps certification bodies with information. Many members of the Association of Test Publishers (ATP) are certification bodies, a segment of the ATP membership which is experiencing strong growth in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Related Topics:
Industry - Computer - National Organization of Certification Agencies - NOCA - Association of Test Publishers - 1990s - 2000s

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The exponential growth in the number of computer-related certifications coupled with the relative ease of their acquisition has led to their devaluation in the eyes of many people in the technology field. In some cases, exam content is easily found by certification seekers (through less-than-honorable methods such as "brain dump" web sites) allowing them to gain certification without knowing, or even understanding, the concepts being tested. Certifying agencies have responded in various ways. Some certification tests have incorporated hands-on testing, although there is no evidence that this reduces cheating or improves reliability or validity. Many have explored anti-cheating methodologies (e.g., Caveon http://www.caveon.com) or expanded their exam content. Others have simply raised the price of certification, in a bid to reduce exam resits (and increase the profit margin per head). Faced with this difficult problem, many certifying agencies have not made any changes.

Related Topics:
Exponential growth - Cheating - Reliability - Validity - Caveon

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