Professional Certification programs , what is the real intention and end goal ?

Majority of countries in Africa currently have local professional institutes and many have come up with local certifications for their professionals, ranging from accountants, Human resources, Supply chain, engineers any profession that can form its own institute seems to have gotten government nod.

With the institutes come examination bodies, certification programs and the continuous professional development. Once legalized, the institutes key ambition is to certify every member, regardless of their academic and years of experience. Imagine someone with fifteen years of experience being in class and being taught a subject by a profession who hasn’t practiced a day in their life and the smell of their newly acquired master’s degree still lingering in the air.

Are certifications a path to financial sustainability of the institutes or do they aid in making the profession better? I know of a number of professionals who have abandoned their professions because of the costs of the memberships, certification costs and continuous development programs cost.

Professional certification is the?process by which a person proves that he or she has the knowledge, experience and skills to perform a specific job and the tasks in which they have been trained, as per an online definition. Now the definition implies testing for knowledge and skills. Skills can only be attained by performing tasks repeatedly over time.

Do our certification programs just send back professionals back to classroom to repeat learning what they learnt at campus level? How are our certification programs testing for skills in specific areas of the professionals’ tasks required in their roles?

Many institutes have no competency frameworks and hence no guide for career path and for creating individual learning paths. It then leaves a lot of questions what we really are certifying the professionals for. Is it a fad we perpetuating because its being done in Europe and America? We haven’t even looked at all the certifications from the west that have flooded our continent, and we even have some employers requiring the Global certifications in addition to the local certifications. It looks to me like some professions are over certified and with all these certification programs we see no development in the area of knowledge generation.

What really do we require the certifications to institutes provide to enable the learners to do and to develop the professions?

How to Make certifications meaningful.

1.???????Develop competency framework for the profession

The competency framework will offer a bench mark of skills and their levels that are required for the profession. The competency framework will also provide a career path for the professionals as well as a personal development plan for each profession. With the explosion in learning, it is good for the professionals know what is good for learning that impacts their performance at the workplace and growth in their career.

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2.???????Develop skills of profession based on their desired career path and learning needs. Blanket certifications assume every profession has the same career desire. Well not everyone aims to hit C-level, for some Manager level is what they desire.

3.??Come to the realization that the highest certification level in the profession is not every professional’s desire, there are those how have no great ambition to reach the pinnacle of the profession and thus highest level isn’t very practical in their life.

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4.????Make certification programs accessible to all. Most certification programs require learners to attend classes, register in colleges. Self-directed learning needs to be availed as an option to attaining certification.

5.???????Ensure highest certification level is not the minimum requirement for roles unless that role’s competency need is aligned.

6.???????Ensure prior learning and experience is factored into the certification programs. One’s years of experience in the profession counts for something.

7.???????Educate professionals on the benefit of certification for both themselves and their professions.

8.???????Encourage professionals to engage in research and publication on typical professional issues, to create a knowledge base for the professions. Professionals who are highly certified and contribute no value addition to their profession are no more different from the uncertified professionals. There is need for a visible distinction of the two in terms of higher competency levels with creating new ideas and new works in the profession being the highest competency level.?

The other level of certification is what we would call domain Knowledge certification or those that focus on a specific area in the profession. In this category of certifications there are a gazillion certification programs from all over the world in numerous knowledge domain areas .

The purpose of these certification is to provide knowledge and skills to the professionals, however we do know from studies that if the learner doesn't practice what they learnt, then they just got informed on the existence of more knowledge within that focus area. Say you take on a certification in Balanced scorecard strategy execution , and post your course you never get engaged in strategy formulation and execution, then you have not applied the learning .This learning we can say that the learner is knowledgeable however their competency will not improve since there is no application and practice. What ever certification program on takes, the learning session are only the foundation, forming less than 20% of what the learner will need to know , there is learning that happens after the program, the self directed learning, where the learner immerses themselves in the domain knowledge . This is usually through reference material cited in the training program, learners own discovery through research and appreciative inquiry.

A learner who post the certification program, continues to learn, practice and apply develops competencies and can demonstrate their skills and knowledge with peers, can enable others learn what they have learned.

We do know that certification papers give an edge in employment, however the paper without the skill, this doesn't prove much , it means that this potential employee has some knowledge in the area. Those wo take on certification programs, continue with self directed learning , apply and practice the new acquired knowledge , share there knowledge and learning, these go one to impact that body of knowledge and generate new knowledge over time. This does not take months, it may take years , and every year , the skill and knowledge level increase compared to when the certification program was undertaken.

As you look to develop your career, look at learning programs that help you build on your skills and knowledge. ensure you have the opportunity to practice those skills at the workplace, even at a volunteer level. Do not only look at certification programs, look at Master classes, workshops that provide in-depth skills and knowledge transfer. And when you do take on a path , go all the way through, become an expert , a thought leader in the domain knowledge, learn more continuously and from many sources like books, articles and case studies. Start writing on the area of your certification and very soon, expert level will be achieved.

Martin Wanjohi

Martin Wanjohi is the Head of Learning at iPerformance Africa. Martin is a seasoned Master instruction designer and devotes his time in designing and delivering performance based learning using various instruction strategies . iPerformance Africa core focus is consulting and learning in the areas of Strategy formulation and execution, Instruction Design, Performance Improvement and Leadership and Management development programs. He can be reached on email:?[email protected]