Professional certification

A professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation often called simply certification or qualification is a designation earned by a person to certify that he is qualified to perform a job. Certification indicates that the individual has a specific set of knowledge, skills, or abilities in the view of the certifying body. Professional certifications are awarded by professional bodies and corporations. The difference between licensure and certification is licensure is required by law, whereas certification is generally voluntary. Sometimes the word certification is used for licensure.

People become certified through training and/or passing an exam. 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.

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 regard to licensure, sometimes as part or whole of the renewal of an individual's certification, the individual must show evidence of continual learning &mdash; often termed continuing education &mdash; or earning continuing education units (CEU).

Certifications are offered through a certification body. This is usually a business organization, and sometimes a professional body. 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.

Certifications are very common in industry, and in particular the computer industry. The National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA) is a US-based organization which helps certification bodies by providing them with information on the latest trends and issues of concern to practitioners and organizations focused on certification, licensure, and human resource development. Many members of the Association of Test Publishers (ATP) are certification bodies.

Certification in the computer industry
Certification is often used in the professions of software engineering and information technology.

The most successful certification programs are oriented toward specific technologies, and are managed by the vendors of these technologies. These certification programs are tailored to the institutions that would employ people who use these technologies.


 * Cisco Systems sponsors the Cisco Career Certifications program
 * Citrix Systems sponsors the Citrix Certified Administrator program
 * IBM sponsors certifications
 * Juniper Networks sponsors the Juniper Networks Technical Certification Program
 * Microsoft Corporation sponsors the Microsoft Certified Professional program
 * MySQL sponsors a certification program
 * Novell sponsors a certification program
 * Object Management Group sponsors the Certified UML Professional program
 * Oracle Corporation sponsors the Oracle Certification Program
 * Red Hat sponsors the Red Hat Certification Program
 * Sun Microsystems sponsors the Sun Certified Professional program

Third-party commercial organizations that sponsor certifications include:
 * ISC2 sponsors the CISSP security certification
 * CompTIA
 * Certiport sponsors the Microsoft Office Specialist and IC3 certification (Internet and Computing Core).
 * European Computer Driving License-Foundation sponsors the International Computer Driving License (ICDL)
 * International ICT Council
 * Planet3 Wireless sponsors the Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) certification
 * Linux Professional Institute
 * European Computer Driving Licence (also called International Computer Driving Licence)
 * Brainbench
 * SAGE (organization) sponsors the cSAGE program
 * SANS Institute operates the Global Information Assurance Certification program
 * Prosoft Learning Corporation offers CIW, CCNT, CTP, AssessPrep certification tracks. Prosoft Learning

General certification of software practitioners has struggled. The ACM had a professional certification program in the early 1980s, which was discontinued due to lack of interest. Today, the IEEE is certifying software professionals, but only about 500 people have passed the exam by March 2005.


 * The IEEE Computer Society sponsors the Certified Software Development Professional
 * The Institute for the Certification of Computing Professionals sponsors the Certified Computing Professional (CCP) and Associate Computing Professional (ACP) certifications
 * The Canadian Information Processing Society sponsors the Information Systems Professional certification in Canada.

Information Systems Security Certification
In an information systems environment that requires formal security accreditation. Certification refers to the comprehensive evaluation of the technical and non-technical security features of an information system. Certification is formally defined by Krutz and Vines as:

The comprehensive evaluation of the technical and non-technical security features of an information system and the other safeguards, with are created in support of the accreditation process to establish the extent to which a particular design and implementation meets the set of specified security requirements.

Criticisms
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. Exam content is sometimes available on the Internet allowing them to gain certification without knowing or understanding the content. 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 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). Certification is a contentious issue. Some see it as a tool to improve professional practice; others point out that very few traditional engineers bother with any form of certification.

Certifications in the legal profession
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 ensure 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.

Certifications in business

 * Better Business Bureau and others administer Small Business Certification
 * International Charter
 * Chartered Financial Analyst
 * Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA)
 * Institute of Certified Professional Managers (ICPM)
 * American Academy of Financial Management (AAFM)

Certification in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
TESOL is a large field of employment with widely varying degrees of regulation. Though native speakers of English have been working in non-English speaking countries in this capacity for years, it was not until the last twenty-five years or so that there was any wide-spread focus on training particularly for this field. Previously, workers in this sort of job were anyone from backpackers hoping to earn some extra travel money to well-educated professionals in other fields doing volunteer work, or retired professionals. Those sorts of people are certainly still to be found, but there are many who consider TESOL their main profession, and for most of their working lives. One of the problems they face is the fact that there is no international governing body for the certification or licenture of ESOL teachers. However, Cambridge University and UCLES are pioneers in trying to get some degree of accountability and quality control to consumers of English courses, through their CELTA and DELTA programs. Trinity College, London, as well, have equivalent programs; the certTESOL and the LTCL DipTESOL. They offer certificates in teaching, in which candidates are trained in certain techniques and given practice teaching as part of their training. Both institutions have a follow-up certification which is a professional diploma. Although the initial certificate is available to anyone with a high school education, the diploma is meant to be a post-graduate qualification and in fact can be incorporated into a Master's degree program. There are other, independent, providers of certification in this field, and many of them are equivalent to Cambridge/UCLES and Trinity. However, there are also many independent providers who do little more than provide a piece of paper with the qualification and candidate's name, in exchange for their fee. It is worth checking into the legitimacy of such providers, if only for the future's sake - there are efforts being made to have the CELTA/DELTA, and Trinity equivalents, recognized by governmental bodies. Because, in fact, qualification requirements of the schools and employers of teaching staves are not as much an issue as are issues regarding the issuance of working permits in the countries where these teachers wish to work. In many countries, there are no governmental requirements whatsoever, and in other places, teaching certification is considered irrelevant and the only requirement is a baccalaureate degree - in any subject. Therefor, it is perhaps wise to have a university degree, but also a TESOL certificate from a respected and verifiable provider.

Other miscellaneous certification programs

 * The International Marina Institute (IMI) has certified over 180 marina management professionals globally through its Certified Marina Managers (CMM) program.
 * The certified medical assistant sits for the clinical and administrative certification exam to show proficiency and copetency in their field.
 * The Certified Beer Judge Program (BJCP) has certified over 2000 amateur brewers and beer-lovers, mainly in the United States
 * Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE) and Certified Human Factors Professional (CHFP).
 * Help Desk Institute certifies for the service industry
 * Other professional certifications include pilots licences and professional drivers licences, and other certifications such as Medical licenses, Membership of the Royal College of Physicians, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, diplomas in social work and probation work.