Today’s business environment is characterized as highly competitive, volatile, diversified, and specialized. In addition, customers have gained high awareness and exposure, about available products and services, which gave them more freedom to choose between various available options, of such products and services. Such ease of selection has caused companies to suffer from customers loss and higher retention costs.
For this, and to survive such competitive environment, businesses have to manage such challenges by engaging multiple approaches, of which upgrading employees' capabilities, is one approach to consider. Employees' capabilities can be upgraded by different methods, as academic and non academic. In this blog, we will talk about certifications as an emerging tool for capabilities upgrading, and their benefits to employee, employer, and economy, collectively.
Certification is defined as the process of which an organization, which is specializing in a particular field, such as PMP, PHR, and CMA, recognizes an individual, for satisfying predetermined criteria; meeting eligibility requirements; passing an examination; and paying a fee. After being certified, retesting or participating in a continuing education is mandatory, for recertification. Certification is voluntarily in nature, yet compulsory in some professions.
Types of certifications
There are three general types of certification: corporate, product-specific, and profession-wide.
Corporate certification is awarded to an employee by his organization, for internal purposes, such as certifying a sales agent after successfully completed product knowledge training, for retraining purposes internally. Such certification has low mobility because it is useful only for working in the awarding organization only.
Product-specific certification is intended to be associated with a particular product, across different applications. This approach is mostly used in IT industry, where employees are certified in a particular version of software or hardware. This type of certification is recognized in different organizations using such a product, but not across other different products. For example Java certified professional.
Profession-wide certification is offered by particular specialties, specialized in specific fields. Such certification is recognized between all organization, such as CMA, PHR, PMP.
Certifications have three stakeholders: Employee, Employer, and Economy (3 Ms), and each one benefits from certifications differently, as follows:
Employee’s benefits
• Certification provides the candidates the opportunity to refresh their technical understanding, in the concerned subject’s matter, as a result of continuous studying, reading, and applying up to date body of knowledge. This is so because academic obtained knowledge can not be updated with time, and gets obsolete over time.
• Certification provides employees with a mean for continuous development and upgrading, through recertification testing, and continuing education credits. Such recertification process, forces employees to be updated continuously, with all changes and developments in their area of expertise.
• Certification equip employees with standardized competitive tool, which could be benchmarked against other people, and act as a differential factor, in selection process, when comparing many people together.
• Certification increases employees’ probability for upward mobility in his job, and competitive position in the market.
• Certification increases professional credibility because of specialization in particular matter or area of expertise. Such specialization provide the employee with the depth and breadth of the subject’s matter, and reduces his risk when carrying his work.
• Certification improves employees’ overall performance, and remove uncertainty.
• Certification is considered as a mark of “technical excellence”, which the employee can use to promote his expertise.
• Certification assures the employee is being current with emerging technologies, knowledge, and skills, in a particular field.
• Certification empowers the employee because it is granted and endorsed by recognized body o knowledge, who is specialized and committed to such field of knowledge.
In my next blog, we will be talking about employer and econmy's benefits from certifacations, along with supporting research findings for such benefits. Appreciate your feedback on this blog, if any.
Regards
Nizar Baidoun (CT, MBA, BCom, DCS)
Certified Trainer & Consultant
For this, and to survive such competitive environment, businesses have to manage such challenges by engaging multiple approaches, of which upgrading employees' capabilities, is one approach to consider. Employees' capabilities can be upgraded by different methods, as academic and non academic. In this blog, we will talk about certifications as an emerging tool for capabilities upgrading, and their benefits to employee, employer, and economy, collectively.
Certification is defined as the process of which an organization, which is specializing in a particular field, such as PMP, PHR, and CMA, recognizes an individual, for satisfying predetermined criteria; meeting eligibility requirements; passing an examination; and paying a fee. After being certified, retesting or participating in a continuing education is mandatory, for recertification. Certification is voluntarily in nature, yet compulsory in some professions.
Types of certifications
There are three general types of certification: corporate, product-specific, and profession-wide.
Corporate certification is awarded to an employee by his organization, for internal purposes, such as certifying a sales agent after successfully completed product knowledge training, for retraining purposes internally. Such certification has low mobility because it is useful only for working in the awarding organization only.
Product-specific certification is intended to be associated with a particular product, across different applications. This approach is mostly used in IT industry, where employees are certified in a particular version of software or hardware. This type of certification is recognized in different organizations using such a product, but not across other different products. For example Java certified professional.
Profession-wide certification is offered by particular specialties, specialized in specific fields. Such certification is recognized between all organization, such as CMA, PHR, PMP.
Certifications have three stakeholders: Employee, Employer, and Economy (3 Ms), and each one benefits from certifications differently, as follows:
Employee’s benefits
• Certification provides the candidates the opportunity to refresh their technical understanding, in the concerned subject’s matter, as a result of continuous studying, reading, and applying up to date body of knowledge. This is so because academic obtained knowledge can not be updated with time, and gets obsolete over time.
• Certification provides employees with a mean for continuous development and upgrading, through recertification testing, and continuing education credits. Such recertification process, forces employees to be updated continuously, with all changes and developments in their area of expertise.
• Certification equip employees with standardized competitive tool, which could be benchmarked against other people, and act as a differential factor, in selection process, when comparing many people together.
• Certification increases employees’ probability for upward mobility in his job, and competitive position in the market.
• Certification increases professional credibility because of specialization in particular matter or area of expertise. Such specialization provide the employee with the depth and breadth of the subject’s matter, and reduces his risk when carrying his work.
• Certification improves employees’ overall performance, and remove uncertainty.
• Certification is considered as a mark of “technical excellence”, which the employee can use to promote his expertise.
• Certification assures the employee is being current with emerging technologies, knowledge, and skills, in a particular field.
• Certification empowers the employee because it is granted and endorsed by recognized body o knowledge, who is specialized and committed to such field of knowledge.
In my next blog, we will be talking about employer and econmy's benefits from certifacations, along with supporting research findings for such benefits. Appreciate your feedback on this blog, if any.
Regards
Nizar Baidoun (CT, MBA, BCom, DCS)
Certified Trainer & Consultant
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