FAQs

These questions have been frequently asked – hence the clever acronym.

So How Much?

Or: What does it cost to develop a professional certification program?
Developing and maintaining a valid and defensible professional certification program is an expensive process. Costs are dependent on a number of factors, including:

• Methods used to identify the examination content  (e.g., expert committee consensus,
  focus groups, national survey)
   
• Type of assessments used (multiple-choice vs. essay questions, written vs. oral vs.
  performance examinations)
   
• Length of examination
   
• Number of new examination forms developed per year
   
• Complexity of candidate eligibility requirements and application review processes
   
• Number of examination sites, number of administrations per year, and number of candidates per administration
   
• Type of examination administration (e.g., paper-and-pencil vs. computer delivery)
   
• Number and type of project tasks program staff are able to conduct "in house"

Organizations seeking to develop professional certification programs must be prepared to budget a minimum of $100,000 for consulting services related to the start-up of the program. Initial market research, business plan development and legal fees are added costs.

Will It Happen In My Lifetime?

Or: How long will it take to develop our professional certification program?
A minimum of 12–18 months should be allotted for program development. This minimum time frame assumes the availability of a dedicated group of staff and volunteers willing to devote a significant portion of their time to this very intensive process. Longer time frames have the advantage of: (a) spreading costs out over time, (b) reducing the intensity of the demands placed on staff and volunteers, and (c) allowing ample time for marketing and promotion of the new program. However, care should be taken to avoid extending the time frame so much that momentum and customer interest wane.

Um, Help, Please?

Or: How do we begin to develop a professional certification program?
Conduct a needs assessment. The first step should be to determine whether, in fact, a professional certification program is the best vehicle for meeting the needs of the sponsoring organization or the profession or industry. Too many organizations initiate certification programs with an "If we build it, they will come" philosophy, only to discover later that the target market is less than enthused, or worse yet, strongly opposed to the concept of certification.

Develop strategic, business, and marketing plans. Although most certification programs are not-for-profit, they are, nonetheless, businesses and should be structured and operated as such. No successful for-profit corporation would consider launching a new product or service without thoroughly researching the market and determining the business implications of the new entry and nor should any not-for-profit organization launch a certification program without equal care.

Establish the scope of occupational/professional competencies to be encompassed by the certification.
Ideally, this task should be accomplished using quantitative methods, rather than relying solely on the opinion of a group of experts. Typically, the competencies are identified by means of a national or international survey of individuals who work in the targeted occupational/professional role. In addition to providing a quantitative basis for defining the scope of the credential, conducting a survey has the advantage of bringing the certification development process out from "behind closed doors" and serving as a tool to promote the new program. Occasionally, the study reveals that there is not sufficient commonality within the occupational/professional role to make a certification program feasible.

Should We Be Changing Something?

Or: How do we know if it's time to make a change to our existing program?
Are your volumes plateauing or falling? Do you have a low candidate completion rate or a high churn rate (i.e., new candidates are entering the program, but certificants are not renewing)? Has your credential simply never lived up to expectations? These are signs that it's time to take a second look at your certification program.

The specific elements of a certification program review depend on the nature of the problem you are experiencing, but typically involve a combination of the following activities:

• review of your customer demographics;
   
• analysis of industry trends and their implications for the certification program;
   
• evaluation of the competitive landscape;
   
• an audit of the program, which may include anything from its basic features (e.g., eligibility requirements, structure of the assessments) to marketing and branding strategy; and
   
• market research to gather additional information and/or confirm hypotheses.

Depending on the findings of the program review, the recommendation may be to substantially transform your certification program, revive it by implementing moderate changes, or discontinue the program altogether.