Beyond Skills: Why Professional Certification is Your Career Game-Changer
15 April 2023
You could be the best driver in the world – yet not allowed to drive a car. Skills are not enough. What you need is a drivers license. Or, in other words, a certificate that provides objective evidence of your competence and skills as a driver. A professional certification works the same way.
Training Certificates
You might have taken 500 driving lessons and hold a certificate to prove it – yet you are still not allowed to drive a car. Training is not enough. Neither is a certificate that merely provides evidence of completed training.
The reasoning is simple. Completed training is no guarantee for acquired competence. It's easy to think of a thousand ways to fail learning despite attending a course. The authors of ISO 9001 realize this issue too. That's why there is an entire clause (ISO 9001:2015 Clause 7.2) on competence – not on training.
Certified Competence
What you need is a certificate that provides evidence of your competence (in our example, a drivers license). In order to acquire the certification, you must undergo an examination to demonstrate your competence.
Could it be any examination? Could anybody issue a certificate as evidence of competence? Our example makes the answer obvious (not anybody can issue a valid drivers license). The same is true for any certification: in order to be valid, it has to be issued by a relevant authority based on objective exam criteria and administration.
Our Professional Certifications
Our professional certifications meet the above criteria. Our examinations have been developed and are delivered in accordance with the stringent, international requirements set forth by Exemplar Global. All our examinations, as well as our operational and administrative systems, are audited on an annual basis to ensure continuing compliance.
As an Exemplar Global Certified Training Provider and Examiner (TPECS), we are authorized to issue Certificates of Attainment bearing the Exemplar Global Competency Units QM (Quality Management Systems), AU (Auditing Management Systems), and TL (Leading Audit Teams).
Expanded Career Opportunities
Professional certifications impact career success and pay. As IBM points out, 88% of job seekers find their professional certification helpful in achieving their career goals. And, again, we are talking about authorized certifications that provide objective evidence of competence.
Why not give your career a boost with one of our certification courses? Maybe you are looking for a more challenging position and higher pay at your company, or you are considering leveraging your skills and certification elsewhere. A professional certification as a Certified ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, for example, opens up new opportunities and prepares you to work as a registrar auditor and to own ISO 9001 auditing projects.
Conclusion
Professional credentials are important. Next time you consider a training course, be sure to check first if it comes with a genuine certificate that's issued by an authorized provider and that provides evidence of acquired competencies – not just of attended training.
