What is a Professional Certification?

Posted in Career Education


 

A professional certification is a form of designation that is earned by an individual to signify that he or she is qualified to perform or do a certain task. A professional certification is a visible means which can help prove that a certain person has the capability, the qualification, competence and the skill to perform a highly specialized task.

Importance of professional certification

The importance of professional certification lies on providing proof that a certain individual is capable of doing a certain type of work competently. With a certificate on hand, employers and companies may be able to get more competent employees.

A proper professional certification can also act as an assurance that employees or professionals are qualified to handle a certain task or specialization.

Types of professional certification:

There are actually three general types of certification for professionals.

Profession wide certification

This certification helps standardize a certain profession and maintain its level of practice by providing a means to determine a person's qualifications and skills.

Such certifications are usually provided and maintained by an accepted professional organization for a certain type of profession.

Certification is usually given after certain individuals have gone through a series of exams and tests required to show proficiency and knowledge.

Corporate or internal certifications

Provided by a company as a requirement for its employees qualified for doing certain responsibilities inside the company.

Such certifications are only provided and accepted as an internal means of maintaining a certain level of proficiency for certain tasks. Such certification may not be accepted in other companies.

Product-specific certifications

This type of certification is intended to standardize proficiency and knowledge in using a certain product.

This type of certification is more common in IT related industries where people are being certified based on their knowledge and proficiency in a certain software application or hardware.