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 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. This article or section should be merged with professional association A professional body or professional organization is an organisation, usually non-profit, that exists to further a particular profession, to protect both the public interest and the interests of professionals. ... A corporation (usually known in the United Kingdom and Ireland as a company) is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name... Licensure refers (in the US) to the granting of a license, usually to work in a particular profession. ...

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. In education, certification, counselling, and many other fields, a test or exam (short for examination) is a tool or technique intended to measure students expression of knowledge, skills and/or abilities. ...

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 — often termed continuing education — or earning continuing education units (CEU). It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Adult education. ... In order to ensure that professionals are progressing and staying up with current issues, regulations and procedures, many state boards that issue professional licenses require that the professional obtain a certain number of training hours for license renewal. ...

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. A professional body or professional organization is an organisation, usually non-profit, that exists to further a particular profession, to protect both the public interest and the interests of professionals. ... The phrase paper tiger is a literal English translation of the Chinese phrase zhi laohu (紙老虎), meaning something which seems as threatening as a tiger, but is really harmless. ...

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 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. A computer is a machine capable of undergoing complex calculations. ...

Certification in the computer industry

Certification is often used in the professions of software engineering and information technology; however, it 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. Software engineering (SE) is the profession that creates and maintains software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, engineering, application domains and other fields. ... Category: ...

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.

• Microsoft Corporation sponsors the Microsoft Certified Professional program
• Sun Microsystems sponsors the Sun Certified Professional program
• IBM sponsors certifications [1]
• Cisco Systems sponsors the Cisco Career Certifications program
• Red Hat sponsors the Red Hat Certification Program
• Object Management Group sponsors the Certified UML Professional program
• MySQL sponsors a certification program [2]
• Novell sponsors a certification program
• Oracle Corporation sponsers the Oracle Certification Program
• Citrix Systems sponsors the Citrix Certified Administrator program

Third-party commercial organizations that sponser certifications include: Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), (founded 1975), headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the worlds largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). ... The Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) program is an IT professional certification for Microsoft products. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Sun Certified Professional (SCP) is a professional certification program by Sun Microsystems. ... International Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) NYSE: IBM (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, NY, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and consulting services. ... Cisco Systems, Inc. ... Cisco Career Certifications are IT professional certifications for Cisco products. ... Alternate meanings: See Red hat Red Hat, Inc. ... The Red Hat Certification Program is Red Hats professional certification program for Red Hat-related skills such as system administration on Red Hat Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. ... Object Management Group (OMG) is a consortium aimed at setting standards in object-oriented programming as well as system modeling. ... David Axmark (left) and Michael Monty Widenius, Founders of MySQL AB, at a conference MySQL is a multithreaded, multi-user, SQL (Structured Query Language) Database Management System (DBMS) with an estimated six million installations. ... Novell, Inc. ... Oracle Corporation NASDAQ: ORCL, one of the major companies developing database management systems, tools for database development, and enterprise resource planning software, dates from 1977 and has offices in more than 145 countries around the world. ... Citrix Systems NASDAQ: CTXS is a U.S. high technology company, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with subsidiary operations in the UK and Australia. ...

• CompTIA
• Linux Professional Institute
• European Computer Driving Licence (also called International Computer Driving Licence)
• Brainbench
• Linux Professional Institute
• SAGE (organization) sponsers the cSAGE program

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. CompTIA is an acronym for the Computing Technology Industry Association. It is a not-for-profit trade association, founded in 1982, and is a provider of many vendor-neutral IT certifications. ... The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) is a non-profit organization that provides vendor-independent certification for Linux system administrators. ... European Computer Driving License logo The European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) and International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) are certificates issued by the non-profit ECDL Foundation, concerning basic computer usage. ... Categories: Possible copyright violations ... The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) is a non-profit organization that provides vendor-independent certification for Linux system administrators. ... SAGE is an international nonprofit professional association of system administrators. ... The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, was founded in 1947 as the worlds first scientific and educational computing society. ... Not to be confused with the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

• 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

An organizational unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), established in 1963 when the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) and the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) merged to create the IEEE. At the time of the merger, the AIEE’s Subcommittee on Large-Scale Computing (established... Certified Software Development Professional is a computer professional certification provided by IEEE Computer Society. ...

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: It has been suggested that Information system be merged into this article or section. ... Generally, accreditation is the process by which a facility becomes officially certified as providing services of a reasonably good quality, so that the public can trust in the quality of its services. ...

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 proces to establish the extent to which a particular design and implementation meets the set of specified security requirments.

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). In mathematics, a quantity that grows exponentially (or geometrically) is one that grows at a rate proportional to its size. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Reliability concerns quality or consistency. ... This article discusses validity in logic, for the term in the social sciences see validity (psychometric). ...

Certifications in the law industry

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. A lawyer is a person licensed by the state to advise clients in legal matters and represent them in courts of law and in other forms of dispute resolution. ... American Bar Associations Washington, DC office The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. ...

Certifications in business

• Better Business Bureau and others administer Small Business Certification
• International Charter
• Chartered Financial Analyst

BBB logo The Better Business Bureau, founded in 1912, is an organization based in the United States and Canada devoted to honest business. ... A small business may be defined as a business with a small number of employees. ... The International Charter (ICharter) is a large, international organization. ... Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) is a professional designation offered by the CFA Institute (formerly known as AIMR) to financial analysts who complete a series of three examinations and work for at least four years in the investment decision making process. ...

Other miscellaneous certification programs

• 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

The Beer Judge Certification Program or BJCP is a non-profit organization formed in 1985 to promote beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer, and to recognize beer tasting and evaluation skills. ... Help Desk Institute (HDI) is a large membership association for the service and support industry. ...

References

• Krutz, Ronald L. and Vines, Russell Dean, The CISSP Prep Guide; Gold Edition, Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana, 2003.

See also

• Product certification
• European professional qualification directives

Product certification or product qualification is the process of certifying that a certain product has passed a set of quality tests. ... There are two main European regulations covering the mutual recognition of professional qualifications: Directive 89/48/EEC and Directive 92/51/EEC. Directive 89/48/EEC covers the mutual recognition of qualifications in recognised professions that require a University degree or equivalent. ...

External links

• ABA Standing Committee on Specialization