What is Certification? (Certificate vs. Certification)

Certification is a third-party attestation that an object of conformity assessment meets specified requirements. These requirements may be set out in a standard or another document.

The object of certification can be:

• A person: People Certification
• A management system: Management Systems Certification
• A product, process, or service: Product, Process, and Service Certification

Other conformity assessment activities include:

• A measurement instrument: Calibration
• A particular product, service, equipment, installation, or process: Inspection

What is People Certification? (Professional Certification)

This is the most well-known certification. While often confused with certificates of completion, people are becoming more aware of the difference.

Certification of a person demonstrates more than having studied the material (courses or books); it usually involves an assessment of the required knowledge and, depending on the certification scheme, may also require relevant experience or other evidence.

Also, some certifications require more than an exam, but you must submit one of the following to complete your application for the certification:

• Your portfolio of relevant projects. You may be asked to provide references for each project so that the certification provider can contact them.
• Your CV with references.
• An interview.

Once the application is accepted, you will receive evidence of your certification, such as a document or a digital badge. Some providers, such as the International Lean Six Sigma Institute (ILSSI), also offer a blockchain-based Non-Fungible Token (NFT) as a digital credential.

Does Professional Certification Expire?

Professional certifications may expire after a defined period, often two or three years, depending on the certification scheme. Others are valid for life.

To renew it, depending on the certification provider, you need to:

• Resubmit your updated experience and portfolio of projects.
• Retake a refresher course.
• Retake an exam.
• Pay renewal fees

The indicator used to show you are up to date and continuously learning is common across certifications and goes by different names, such as Continuing Education Credits (CECs), Continuing Education Units (CEUs), or Professional Development Units (PDUs).

Although this is the standard path in each certification type, not only in people certification, it is considered by many professionals as abusive.

In my opinion, it depends on the fees; if the renewal process doesn’t require much effort from the certification provider, obliging professionals to pay a small amount, it can be reasonable.

Meanwhile, some certification providers don’t apply expiration dates to foundational certifications.

Other certification providers have experience levels, for example: Provisional Auditor, Auditor, Lead Auditor.

If you don’t apply for anything higher than “Provisional Auditor”, your title may remain valid for life, depending on the scheme. If you apply for a higher level, you may need to provide evidence and pay the applicable fees.

The particular case is with Lean Six Sigma certification; many organizations such as Management and Strategy Institute, The International Lean Six Sigma Institute, Go Lean Six Sigma, and The Council of Six Sigma Certification offer a lifetime certification. But they encourage you to continue your professional development through ongoing learning and practical application.

The American Society for Quality (ASQ) also offers lifetime certifications for its Yellow Belt and Green Belt credentials.

Professional Certification Categories

There are three main types of professional certifications:

Corporate certifications are made internally to standardize an internal level of desired competency. Hence, it is not open to the public.

As an example, I picked General Electric (GE) Internal Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification on purpose to highlight how a certification can be designed internally, and then it spreads out of the organization to become an industry standard.

Lean Six Sigma grew in part through corporate use, including at GE, and the methodology is now widely used in quality engineering.

Product-specific or vendor certifications are developed by a product vendor to ensure that a professional can configure, administer, or support their specific product or platform.

This approach is very common in the information technology (IT) industry. Professionals want to take those certifications to demonstrate their proficiency in a particular brand technology like Microsoft, AWS, Cisco, Odoo, Nutanix, or Google.

Example: Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals

This is the most widely used certification. It is delivered by a third party, proving your proficiency at an industry level.

Industry-wide professional certifications may be recognized across employers, technologies, and countries, although recognition varies by certification and market.

Example: Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification

Management system certification is the assessment of a management system, which consists of a set of processes, against specified requirements.

The most familiar certification is ISO 9001. It proves that a Quality Management System (QMS) is conformant to the requirements of the standard ISO 9001.

For example, a company, ALPHA LLC, that produces phone cases has a Quality Management System. This QMS is certified to ISO 9001. In no case can ALPHA LLC claim that their phone cases are certified to ISO 9001 because this certification isn’t for products but management systems.

“Conformity of a Management System” ≠ “Conformity of a product or service ”

If the certified Management System is a Quality Management System, it doesn’t mean that the products or services that it is producing are of good quality. But it means that the Quality Management System has been assessed against ISO 9001 requirements within its defined scope. The system should support the consistent provision of conforming products and services and address nonconformities when they occur.

Management System examples:

Calibration is the process of establishing the relationship between the values indicated by a measurement tool and the corresponding values provided by a reference, including the associated measurement uncertainty. The results are usually documented in a calibration certificate. Calibration does not automatically mean that the instrument has passed acceptance criteria.

This is one of the oldest forms of conformity assessment known to humanity.

I remember entering an old market in the Roman ruins inside the old city of Calama when I saw the rock that was used to set the lengths inside the market to harmonize measurements.

Calibration may be performed by laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025. However, not every calibration is required to be performed by an accredited laboratory.

ISO 9001 requires organizations to ensure that monitoring and measuring resources are suitable for their intended purpose. Where measurement traceability is required or considered essential, calibration or verification must be carried out appropriately; an accredited laboratory is not universally required.

Calibration is particularly important in Six Sigma projects, as reliable measurements are essential for calculating process capability indices such as Cp and Cpk. Organizations must ensure their measurement tools are properly calibrated and suitable for their intended use.

What is Certification of Product or Service?

Certification of a product or service is a conformity assessment to determine whether it meets the requirements of a particular standard.

Those criteria aren’t only related to the product itself, but can be related to the manufacturing process, how it is performed, and the quality control tests that are performed.

“Product certification” ≠ “The certification body checks and certifies each particular product”

In the food industry, the most popular certifications are Halal and Kosher. Those religious certifications attest to the product and its manufacturing process, including the slaughter method for meat.

Inspection is very specific; it is different from product certification. In this case, a particular product, installation, equipment, or process is inspected to determine whether it conforms to a standard.

Have you ever noticed BV (Bureau Veritas), ABS (American Bureau of Shipping), or DNV (Det Norske Veritas) logos on container doors when you were stuck in traffic just behind a truck?

Such markings may indicate that a container has undergone a relevant approval or inspection process. The meaning of a logo depends on the applicable scheme and should not be assumed from the logo alone.

Is Certification Mandatory?

Certification is generally voluntary unless required by an industry, a government, or a relevant authority in a particular domain.

For instance, international rules for shipping containers include safety approval and periodic examination requirements. The applicable requirements depend on the container and the relevant regulatory framework.

So the general rule is that certification is optional to be competitive in the job market for professionals and in the market for businesses.

Professional Certification vs Occupational Licensing

The main difference is often their legal status. Professional certification attests that a person meets specified requirements, while an occupational licence generally provides legal authorization to perform a regulated activity. Licensing arrangements vary by jurisdiction.

Both can be used to assess competency, but occupational licences are legally required for some regulated activities, while professional certifications are often voluntary or required by an employer.

Workplace Examples of Licenses:

• Forklift / Crane operator license
• Commercial driver’s license (CDL)
• Heavy machinery operating license

In the context of people certification, the confusion between a certificate of completion and certification is very common.

The main difference is that a professional certification usually involves an assessment, and sometimes further verification, against defined requirements. A certificate of completion generally confirms that you completed a learning program. Recognition depends on the credential and the organization awarding it.

With a training program, you may receive a certificate of completion confirming that you completed the training. This does not necessarily mean that you have earned a professional certification, although employers may still recognize the training.

Technically, a certificate is a document attesting to an achievement. When you earn a certification, you may also receive a certificate as evidence of that certification. In both cases, you may receive a document, but they do not necessarily attest to the same thing.

I advise people who want to go for a certification program to be aware of the following common misconceptions:

• ” X certification course” (i.e., PMP certification course). You expect to be certified upon completion of the program, but it is just a preparation-to-certification course.
• “Accredited training provider”: the fact that they are trusted to deliver a course doesn’t mean they provide certification.
• “Accredited by X” matters only when the accreditation is relevant to the certification you want to get. You need to check the scope of the accreditation first.

Check out our short story describing what accreditation is and why it is important.

As certification is important and impactful to both businesses and professionals, WhichCert.com was created to demystify it.

We can’t cover the whole certification world at once, but we are progressively expanding.

We create content answering common questions for each certification and list certification providers with our opinion to try to guide you in your certification journey to pick the one that best responds to your needs.

We have started with People Certification with the subcategory of Quality Engineering certifications.

We aim to expand and cover every certification that a professional can get, other than quality engineering, in project management, cloud computing, first aid, etc.

Then, in the future, we aim to cover certifications for businesses and labs.

Many people waste money and time on the wrong program. Our main objective is to help people and businesses make informed choices when it comes to certification.

Final Thoughts

Certification is a broad field. One common type is certification of people. Other types include certification of management systems and products or services. Calibration of measurement instruments and inspection of products, services, and equipment are related conformity assessment activities, but they are not the same as certification.

Although certification is often voluntary, it can help professionals stand out in the job market, and businesses demonstrate conformity in the market.

Some of them are mandatory and required by the government or in the industry.

WhichCert.com is dedicated to helping readers make informed choices when it comes to certification and aims to become The Certification Guide.