Certificates vs. Certification

Some believe certificates and certifications are the same thing. Nothing could be further from the truth.
"Confusion may exist," says Scott Laman, chair of ASQ’s Certification Board, "because when people go to a training course, they want closure. So the instructor gives out certificates of completion—often without there being a test or confirmation of knowledge. All a certificate means is that they’ve taken a course.

Because ASQ’s exams are developed by subject matter experts and require achievement of the cut score on an exam, certifications demonstrate comprehension of a body of knowledge, according to Laman.
Kathi Harris, vice chair of the Certification Board, adds that to even apply for an ASQ certification, an applicant must meet employment, education, or experience requirements. For Six Sigma certifications, proof of having completed projects is necessary.
With the all the requirements needed, there are times when people do not pass the exam. They do not receive the certification. Petitions are sent to the ASQ Certification Board. The ASQ Certification Board has sympathy for the petitioners. Laman recalls one petitioner who, "had come close to passing the six times he had taken the exam." "His petition said," Laman continues, "he was a Senior member of ASQ, had completed two prep courses and the online question bank, and had studied all the recommended books."
But Laman said the answer still had to be no. It was as simple as, "If you don’t pass the test, you don’t receive the certification. There is no sum of credentials and certificates that equals ASQ certification."
At the medical device manufacturer where Laman is a senior manager, he is developing a quality engineering career ladder that uses certifications as one factor to distinguish between job levels. The ladder uses evidence of knowledge by progression through levels of ASQ certification:

1. Level one includes Certified Quality Improvement Associate, Quality Process Analyst, Quality Inspector, or Quality Technician.
2. Level two includes Certified Quality Engineer, Reliability Engineer, or Six Sigma Green Belt
3. Level three is evidenced by multiple quality certifications, such as Certified Quality Engineer, Auditor, Reliability Engineer, Six Sigma Black Belt, and/or Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence.
4. Level four adds the potential for involvement and certifications from other organizations, such as the Project Management Institute, as well as ASQ Senior or Fellow membership status.

Laman is also building on Bloom’s taxonomy, which is used on ASQ’s exams to classify the levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. On his company’s career ladder:

• Bloom’s "remember and understand" categories equate to "awareness-level knowledge" expected of people in entry-level positions.
• Bloom’s "apply and analyze" categories equate to "experience-level knowledge" characteristic of mid-level positions.
• Bloom’s "evaluate and create" categories equate to "expertise-level knowledge" characteristic of the highest-level positions.

Laman is obviously a true believer in the value of ASQ certification. About the petitioner mentioned earlier in this article, he concludes, "The rigor of ASQ’s exam development process will make the achievement all the more meaningful when he does pass—which I’m sure he will."
NOTE: Laman discusses justification of the cost of certification in the “Expert Answers” column of the December 2010 issue of Quality Progress (p. 8).