Transcript Document
Undervalued Credentials:
Certifications, Certificates and
Licenses
Joan Knapp, PhD
CAEL Conference
November 11, 2010
Who are you?
Faculty or administrator?
Nonprofit or private sector/for profit institution?
Community college or four year/graduate
institution?
Have PLA or planning PLA or want to do PLA?
Integrated nonacademic credentials or not?
Certified (not certifiable), licensed or have
certificates?
What is Knapp?
Established in 1989
Consultancy devoted exclusively to serving the
professional and occupational certification industry
Consultants include management experts,
psychometricians and test development
specialists, each with at least 15 years experience
in the certification industry
Knapp consultants have been selected to serve as
auditors for national and international certification
accreditation programs
Industries/Professions served
K&AI has worked with 100 organizations and
corporations in the fields of:
Retail
Construction
Financial services
Travel
Business management
Utilities
Information technology
Scientific and technical
Medicine and healthcare
Culinary arts and foodservice
Some Knapp clients
National Retail Federation
Institute for Supply Management
APICS: The Association for Operations
Management
Pharmacy Technicians Certification Board
National Payroll Association
Associated General Contractors of America
Intel
Pella Industries
What will you learn?
Changing demography of our learners
What non-academic credentials are
Why they should be important to CAEL and
your institution
Current models for giving academic
recognition for some of these credentials
How CAEL and your institution could add
value to these credentials
What is the
profile of today’s
learner?
Leslie
In her 50’s
MBA from the Wharton School
She and husband lost their jobs; he is 63
Two teen-aged children
Recently obtained real estate license,
certification in project management, took
certificate programs in Microsoft software
Thinking of getting another degree related to
project management
David
In his 20’s; has a GED
Lives with his parents, speaks only Spanish at home
Has a job as a security guard
Wants a healthcare career: “that’s where the ‘action’
is”
Obtained a certificate as a medical office assistant
Dating my step granddaughter who wants him to “be
something”
Considering college
What is the profile of today’s
learner*
A Thought :
Never have so many overqualified and under
qualified individuals been unemployed
Intergenerational
Needs to change career
Needs to advance career
Needs a career
* Special thanks to Dr. Harriet Cabell for some of these
profile characteristics
Hooked on online communities and social
networks
Wants “concierge” education
in “real time”, at his/her convenience
What is the profile of today’s
learner?
Has increased interest in certifications,
certificates, licenses
Seeks “micro”, just-in-time credential, chunks
Knows s/he can get credit for what s/he
“knows” from experiences outside academia
Wants to be recognized for what s/he can do
and what s/he has accomplished
Technologically advanced, has easy access to
technology
What is the profile of today’s
learner?
A Thought:
There are over 7.5 million adults enrolled post
secondary institutions; nearly a half million at
University of Phoenix
Shops around
Enticed by the promises/opportunities of
“private sector“ post-secondary education
Other ????????
Non-academic credentials: All the
same thing?
Non-academic credentials:
Confusing alphabet soup
Certification
Certificate programs
Licensure
Certification
Professional certification is the voluntary process by
which a non-governmental entity grants a time-limited
recognition and use of a credential to an individual after
verifying that he or she has met predetermined and
standardized criteria. It is the vehicle that a profession or
occupation uses to differentiate among its members, using
standards, developed through a consensus driven process,
based on existing legal and psychometric requirements.
The holder of a professional certification is called a
certificant and has achieved a designation.
(Adapted from The NOCA Guide to Understanding
Credentialing Concepts)
Assessment–based certificates
An assessment-based certificate is issued after an
individual completes a course or series of courses
and takes and passes an assessment. The content
of the assessment is limited to the course content
and objectives and therefore may not be completely
representative of professional practice (and
therefore it is not as defensible to use this or the
types of certificates for regulatory purposes as
compared to a professional certification).
(Adapted from The NOCA Guide to Understanding
Credentialing Concepts)
Other certificate programs
A certificate program is a training program on a topic
for which participants receive a certificate after
attendance and/or completion of the coursework.
One who completes a professional certificate program
is known as a certificate holder. A credential is
usually NOT granted at the completion of a certificate
program.
(Adapted from The NOCA Guide to Understanding
Credentialing Concepts)
Licensure
• Licensure is the process by which an agency of
government grants permission to persons to engage in a
given profession or occupation by certifying that those
licensed have attained the minimal degree of
competency necessary to ensure that the public health,
safety and welfare will be reasonably well protected.
• Almost all licensure acts include relicensure requirements
or disciplinary action as mechanisms to provide
assurance of continuing competence to the public.
Certification in a nutshell
Voluntary
Time-limited – recertification
Has eligibility requirements
Requires an assessment
Assessment linked closely to a job function, role,
and/or responsibilities
Concerned with broad professional/occupational
skills and knowledge
Gives the certificate holder a designation (e.g. CFP)
Assessment–based certificate
programs in a nutshell
Voluntary
Awarded in perpetuity
Typically do not have eligibility requirements
Requires an “assessment”
Assessment lnked to a curriculum, course, seminar,
learning objectives, etc.
Concerned with narrow set of skills or knowledge
areas - chunking
“Should” not offer a designation
Certificate programs in a nutshell
Voluntary
Courses, seminars, online modules
No assessment to determine if individual has
mastered content and objectives
Concerned with narrow set of skills or
knowledge
Similar to “continuing education” programs
Offers a “certificate of attendance”
Licensure in a nutshell
Mandatory
Time-limited – relicensure
Has eligibility requirements
Usually requires an assessment
Assessment should be linked closely to a job
function, role, and/or responsibilities
Concerned with minimal level of knowledge and
skills needed to protect public
Offers a license that is registered with the state
All quality and credible credentialing
programs meet standards and have an
assessment component!
Organizations of credentialers
• Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE)
• Council on Licensure, Enforcement and
Regulation (CLEAR)
• Certification Networking Group (CNG)
• Association of Test Publishers-Certification
and Licensure Division (ATP)
Standards for credentialers
Document established by consensus and
approved by recognized body that provides
for common and repeated use, rules,
guidelines or characteristics for activities or
their results aimed at achieving the optimum
degree of order…” (ISO/IEC Guide 2)
Openness, balance, collaborative,
consensus, other due process safeguards
Standards for credentialers
American National Standards Institute
(ANSI)
Buros Institute for Assessment Consultation
and Outreach (BIOCA)
National Commission for Certification
Agencies (NCCA)
National Skills Standards Board (NSSB)
Prevalence of credentialing
State of New Jersey alone has 43 boards regulating 80
professions…600,000 individuals are licensed.
Mercer County Community College in New Jersey has 30
certificate programs ranging from solar energy technician
to travel agent
ICE estimates its members offer over 100,000
certification examinations annually
Certification programs are booming and industries all
fields, particularly healthcare and IT
Certificate programs as well
Why are nonacademic credentials
important?
Why are nonacademic credentials
important?
Play a role in closing the skills gap
As per the Gates Foundation, part of a
larger qualifications framework to
increase postsecondary completion
rates
A more productive and highly trained
workforce for all the stakeholders
Why are nonacademic credentials
important?
Recognition by a third party
Supports continued professional development
Demonstrates a certain level of knowledge and
skill
Increases opportunities for career advancement
and/or increased earnings
Increases and/or validates skills and knowledge
Meets employer or governmental requirements
City and Guilds
Framework very complex
Top down, creates occupational silos
Hundreds of qualifications based on the NVQ
system in the UK and levels
Training and assessments required
Framework undergoing massive changes at
the moment
ACE-CREDIT Services
Related directly to course content in obvious ways
Mostly training based
Does not take into consideration the requirements for
certification
Does not take into consideration knowledge, skills ,etc.
Poor outreach to credentialing community
Needs to look more like portfolio assessment
Credentials need to be “unpacked”
ACE – CREDIT Service
Mostly training and certificate programs
Expensive
Not focussed on certification or licensure
Short changes adult leqarner
(training=credits) not really what was learned
Doesn’t address the complexity of some
credentials
Little outreach to credentialers
Let’s leave our comfort zone???
Credentialing Life Cycle: What it
could mean to your institution
The Certificant Lifecycle
PRE-CERTIFICATION
Education/Training
Who touches our
candidates even
before we do?
Special Interests (e.g., hobbies)
CERTIFICATION
Assessment
Fulfill Eligibility Requirements
Pass
Recertification
CE, PD activities, etc.
Initial
Contact/Inquiry
Application
Preparation for
Assessment
Assessment
Fail
Additional
Preparation
POST-CERTIFICATION
What else is going
on in our
certificants’ lives?
Additional Education/Training
Work-Related Events
Career Change
“Retirement”
Copyright 2009. Knapp & Associates International, Inc.
Retake
Assessment
Leslie
In her 50’s
MBA from the Wharton School
She and husband lost their jobs; he is 63
Two teen-aged children
Recently obtained real estate license,
certification in project management, took
certificate programs in Microsoft software
Thinking of getting another degree related to
project management
David
In his 20’s; has a GED
Lives with his parents, speaks only Spanish at home
Has a job as a security guard
Wants a healthcare career: “that ‘s where the ‘action’
is”
Obtained a certificate as a medical office assistant
Dating a college senior who wants him to “be
something”
Considering college
Create a program strategy for
integrating nonacademic
credentials
How would it create
value for Leslie and
David?
Right direction
for you?
Why or why not?
I invite you, CAEL, ACE,
AACC and other Partners to
rethink non-academic
credentials