{"id":57,"date":"2015-10-21T18:20:11","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T18:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proftesting.com\/blog\/?p=57"},"modified":"2016-11-16T02:08:56","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T02:08:56","slug":"20151021what-is-certification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/21\/20151021what-is-certification\/","title":{"rendered":"What is “Certification?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

While conducting research for a journal article, I came across this definition of \u201ccertification<\/em>\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cCertification refers to the confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person or organization.\u00a0 This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, assessment or audit.\u00a0 Accreditation is a specific organization\u2019s process of certification\u201d (Wikipedia).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And if that isn\u2019t confusing enough, I also found this:<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessional Certification, trade certification or professional designation, often simply called certification<\/em> or qualification<\/em>, is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task\u201d (Wikipedia).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are so many confusing issues and terms in the above two definitions that I thought it would be helpful if this week\u2019s posting focused on clarifying exactly what certification<\/em> is.\u00a0 First it is important that we clarify there are many different types of certification<\/em> in our world today.\u00a0 There are certifications<\/em> for organizations and businesses.\u00a0 There are certifications<\/em> of products.\u00a0 There are certifications<\/em> for persons.\u00a0 There are even certifications<\/em> for greenhouse gas.<\/p>\n

Organizations and businesses can be certified<\/em> by a certifying<\/em> body (which is another organization) as meeting a standard such as ISO 9001.\u00a0 This certification signifies to the public that the organization has been reviewed by a third party certifying<\/em> body and has been found to be in conformance with the standard.\u00a0 In the case of 9001, certification<\/em> signifies that the organization or business has a quality management system in place that meets the requirements of 9001.<\/p>\n

There is an important concept I\u2019d like to highlight in this sentence appearing above:<\/p>\n

This certification signifies to the public that the organization has been reviewed by a third party certifying body and has been found to be in compliance with the standard. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Certification<\/em> by definition must be third party.\u00a0 First party is one\u2019s self or one\u2019s own organization.\u00a0 Second party is not one\u2019s self or one\u2019s own organization but a party under the control of the first party through contractual arrangement or otherwise related in the transaction.\u00a0 An example would be someone hired by the first party like a consultant.\u00a0 Third party is completely neutral.\u00a0 So when we say that certification<\/em> by definition must be third party, we mean that someone or some \u201cbody\u201d other than the object of certification<\/em> must do the evaluation.\u00a0 An organization, business or person cannot certify<\/em> itself.\u00a0 This is always true.\u00a0 Self-attestation is not a form of certification<\/em>.\u00a0 So in all cases where the term \u201ccertification<\/em>\u201d is used, there are two parties.\u00a0 The party being certified<\/em> and the party evaluating and awarding the certification<\/em>.\u00a0 And the certifying<\/em> body can\u2019t be second party either.\u00a0 That is they can\u2019t be under the control or influence of the first party or related to the first party by contract or transaction.\u00a0 They must have no vested interest in the outcome of the certification<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Products can also be certified<\/em>.\u00a0 For example, the last time you purchased or used an extension cord you might remember the little flap of paper near the plug that had a mark on it (UL) which stands for Underwriter\u2019s Laboratory and signifies that the cord has been certified<\/em> by UL as meeting a standard for extension cords.<\/p>\n

Greenhouse gas emissions can be certified<\/em>.\u00a0 Greenhouse gases are the vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone that cause the greenhouse effect and warms the earth.\u00a0 These are byproducts of industrialization and human activities.\u00a0 Since the world has agreed to try to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions there are auditors who measure, verify, validate and certify the amount of greenhouse gasses that an organization emits.\u00a0 You might recall that Volkswagen has been in the news lately for violating the United States Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA\u2019s) Nitrous Oxide emission requirements.\u00a0 This happened because since 2012, car and truck manufacturers are required to submit a certification<\/em> to the government that shows its vehicles meet strict standards for the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted.\u00a0 There is a bit of flexibility built into the strict standards because manufacturers can generate emissions \u201ccredits\u201d that they can save for future use, or sell or trade to other manufacturers thus generating a market for greenhouse gas certificates<\/em> and credits.\u00a0 In Volkswagen\u2019s case, they allegedly used faulty data to show they met the requirement when in fact their cars might not meet the requirements.<\/p>\n

Finally, the type of certification<\/em> we are most interested in is the certification<\/em> of people.\u00a0 This might also be called \u201cProfessional Certification<\/em>\u201d although not all person certification<\/em> is professional.\u00a0 People can be certified for hobbies (certified genealogist), sports (certified scuba diver), and other activities (project management certification) besides for a profession. When people are certified<\/em> it means they have been evaluated by a third party as meeting a standard and have the knowledge and skills (and sometimes attributes) for competent performance of the profession, the job, the hobby, the sport, or the activity.<\/p>\n

Certification<\/em> is distinguished from two similar credentials \u201cLicenses<\/em>\u201d and \u201cCertificates<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0 A License<\/em> is also an attestation that a person has met a standard defining the knowledge and skills for competent performance for a job (cosmetology license) or for an activity (driver\u2019s license).\u00a0 The difference between a license<\/em> and a certification<\/em> is that a license<\/em> is issued by a government or regulatory body while a certification<\/em> is issued by a certification<\/em> body functioning in the industry or profession.\u00a0 Licenses<\/em> are often mandatory while certifications<\/em> are often voluntary.\u00a0 Licenses<\/em> are almost always minimum competence (meaning they measure the knowledge and skills for minimal competent performance) while certifications <\/em>can be issued for a number of competence levels including mastery or higher level specialization.<\/p>\n

A certificate<\/em> is a credential awarded to someone who has demonstrated knowledge by completing an educational or training course.\u00a0 It is similar to a diploma but not of the typical university Bachelor\u2019s, Master\u2019s and Doctoral types.\u00a0 Certificates<\/em> are distinguished from certification<\/em> in that certificates<\/em> are awarded for life, while a certification <\/em>must be renewed on a regular basis.\u00a0 Once a person has a certificate<\/em> (like a diploma) it belongs to the person and can\u2019t be taken away.\u00a0 However certification<\/em> belongs to the certifying<\/em> body and can be taken away from the person if the person ceases competent performance, or for a host of other reasons (violation of code of ethics, failure to maintain certification requirements, failure to recertify, etc.).\u00a0 Additionally, certification<\/em> is awarded by a third party while a certificate<\/em> can be awarded by a second party.\u00a0 Remember a second party is related to the first party by contractual relationship or transaction and may have a vested interest in the outcome.\u00a0 So a training or educational institution may award a certificate<\/em> to its graduates.\u00a0 But it may not offer a certification<\/em> to its graduates.\u00a0 A training or educational institution is not third party.\u00a0 It has a vested interest in the outcome.\u00a0 Bodies that provide both training\/education and certification<\/em> must separate the two activities so that the division that is doing the certification<\/em> is entirely neutral and third party.\u00a0 This often requires a \u201cfire wall\u201d between the two activities including administrative (staff, etc.) and financial separation of the two activities.<\/p>\n

Certification<\/em> by definition includes a review, assessment or audit of the body or product being certified<\/em>.\u00a0 In the case of the certification<\/em> of a person, this review or assessment verifies that the person has the knowledge and skills for competent performance.\u00a0 Graduation from a training or educational program is not sufficient.\u00a0 Years of experience in the field is not sufficient.\u00a0 Both of these are qualifications<\/em> that signal the person likely has competence but it is possible for a person to graduate from a training or educational program and to not have learned what he was supposed to have learned.\u00a0 And it is possible for a person to have years of experience in a field, and for all of that experience still be incompetent in performance.\u00a0 So while qualifications<\/em> (education\/training and experience) tell us something about the person, they are not a guarantee that the person has the knowledge and skills for competent performance.\u00a0 Only neutral, third party certification<\/em> provides true, valid evidence.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s revisit the definitions at the start of this:<\/p>\n

\u201cCertification refers to the confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person or organization.\u00a0 This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, assessment or audit.\u00a0 Accreditation is a specific organization\u2019s process of certification\u201d (Wikipedia).\u00a0 <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Much of the above is true however there must<\/em> be external review, assessment or audit for certification to be awarded. Education alone is not sufficient to award certification.\u00a0 That would be a certificate.<\/p>\n

And in this definition:<\/p>\n

\u201cProfessional Certification, trade certification or professional designation, often simply called certification or qualification, is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task\u201d (Wikipedia).<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are a host of things wrong with this definition.\u00a0 Certification is not a designation.\u00a0 Designations are the letters that certification bodies allow a certified person to put behind their name on a business card (CPA, PMP, etc.) that signifies the person holds a certification.\u00a0 They are not the same thing.\u00a0 Not all certifications have designations.\u00a0 Also, certification cannot simply be called \u201cqualification\u201d.\u00a0 These are two different concepts and not to be confused.\u00a0 Qualification (training\/education or experience) can be a component of certification but alone is not certification.\u00a0 Certification must have third party assessment of knowledge and skills.\u00a0 And most of all this is NOT true: \u201ccertification is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification\u201d.\u00a0 It would be better stated that \u201ccertifications are credentials awarded to persons who have demonstrated they have the qualifications AND the knowledge and skills for competent performance.\u201d\u00a0 And this has been attested to through third-party verification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While conducting research for a journal article, I came across this definition of \u201ccertification<\/em>\u201d:<\/p>

\u201cCertification refers to the confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person or organization.  This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, assessment or audit.  Accreditation is a specific organization\u2019s process of certification\u201d (Wikipedia). <\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,10,32,31,33],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-certificates","tag-certification","tag-certifying-body","tag-cynthia-woodley","tag-licenses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proftesting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}