Certificate vs. Certification: Achieving Your Organization’s Goals

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The terms “certification” and “certificate” are often used interchangeably, but there are well-defined differences in the world of credentials. These differences have important implications for when and how your organization invests in training and validation programs. In this article, I’ll break down the meaning and characteristics of each term, introduce IPC’s approach to training and certification, and explain how you can leverage each credential to achieve your goals.

Certification
A certification is a document issued by an independent certifying body like IPC to verify that an individual possesses a defined set of previously acquired knowledge, skills, and abilities in a field of practice. Individuals are usually required to take an exam to demonstrate possession of these competencies at a level of proficiency defined by industry-based standards or criteria. Test candidates who successfully complete the exam are issued a certificate that attests to their certified status. The awarded document is called a certificate, but it denotes the attainment of a certification.

Certification programs are not linked to a specific training program. In fact, any person who meets the certification program’s eligibility requirements may sit for the exam. Given the rigorous nature of certification exams, some type of formal or informal test preparation is usually advisable. However, test prep is not mandatory because the exam is not designed to assess whether a student learned what was taught in a course of study. Instead, certification exams are designed to validate and recognize a person’s current competencies.

Individuals with a given level of education and years of experience on the job will have had the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills measured by the exam. The role of the certification exam as a validation tool also explains why exam participants cannot see the questions they missed. The exam would quickly lose its ability to accurately measure competency if the questions and answers were common knowledge.

As an example, consider the bar exam that attorneys must pass to be certified to practice law. How the candidate obtained the knowledge to pass the bar is not required for the exam. Likewise, completing a law degree at a university does not guarantee the candidate will pass the bar.

To read this entire article, which appeared in the July 2024 issue of SMT007 Magazine, click here.