Use any internet search engine and type in “fake certification” or a similar phrase and you will definitely likely find offers for certification credentials within your profession of preference with no skills assessment, training, or experience required – with the exception of a valid credit card. Obviously, entering “fake certification” will result mostly in offers for “novelty” credentials; however, many so-called “legitimate” certification credentials can be just as worthless as the fakes. Just how can this be so? Well, the certification sector is largely unregulated. Basically, you can find no regulating agencies to enforce standards, so each certifying body can make their own.
In reality, pretty much anybody can be a certification granting entity using a desktop computer and a printer. This is not to express that every certifications are phony; there are certification granting bodies that indeed have high standards, but unfortunately, most usually do not. For each and every credible and recognized certification, there could be several competing ones that are unrecognized, questionable, or outright fakes. Being unregulated, the certification market is truly a “wild west show”, rendering it hard for the uninformed to identify the best from your bad. However, with some footwork, it’s not that hard to remove value through the “junk”.
Assessment Criteria – If your goal is to acquire a credential that really validates your expertise, it will probably be based on a mixture of experience, a skills assessment, training and education, and a reference check. Keep in mind however, that even a program proclaiming use of these criteria can be “under credible” if this waters them down or allows them to be “gamed” for an extent that enables someone to qualify. For example, a skills assessment might be a questionnaire that a five years old could pass, training might be in an unrelated field, and experience or references may be stated and unverifiable. A good way to gauge the validity of any purchase fake certificate is to find out its pass rate. Usually, the greater the pass rate, the more likely it is going to fall into the “under credible” category.
General Reputation – Name recognition could be positive and negative; good like trusted, valuable, and respected – bad as with infamous, notorious, or scam artist. Before subscribing to a certification program, it would be prudent to find out of its reputation and that of the organization granting it. Search the internet, ask friends, family, coworkers, yet others. For obvious reasons, the goal is to filter out certifications or organizations with negative reputations. However, remember that simply because a certification or organization isn’t well-known doesn’t mean it offers no value. There are popular organizations that provide certifications which are considered a “joke” by its industry practitioners, but those same credentials may appear credible with an uniformed public because of the name recognition factor. Also, small organizations offer certification programs which are often respected within their professions, but are relatively unknown to the general public. Adding to the confusion, some well-known certification granting organizations may offer multiple certification programs, some which can be credible and a few which are not. Although name recognition on its own provides an initial short-term credibility kick, it needs to be considered only when other indicators of quality and credibility are present.
Peer Acceptance – After filtering out your obvious junk, the next thing is to discover which certification credentials are valued from your industry’s practitioners. Talking with practicing professionals, employers, and customers can uncover plenty of valuable information. Respected certifications along with those considered as “worthless” are often well-known within particular industries, but there could be little information, good or bad, on them in the general public. Certification programs wbsfqn a higher acceptance among affected practitioners, employers, and customers enhances ROI (return) and definately will reduce your odds of earning a worthless credential that may label you as being a “wannabee” or “phony”. It’s just like vital that you discuss certification with seasoned practitioners that are not certified.
Practitioners could have valid factors behind not seeking certification because they may think about the available credentials as not credible, unnecessary, a gimmick, or fraudulent. Sometimes, particular certifications become very popular in a industry. If it is the case to get a certification program you are thinking about, it might be worthwhile to discover why. Often certifications become popular only since they are easy to obtain, the selling point being that any paper credential will give you an “edge” on the competition. But impressive looking credentials granted by official sounding organizations can only go up to now whatever the ribbons, buzz words, signatures, along with other trappings used so they are appear legitimate. Also, the majority of experienced practitioners and employers won’t be fooled by appearances and will definitely investigate any unfamiliar credentials they are offered across. In any case, because of all the the variables, it’s crucial to research all the available certifications within your field of great interest as well as discuss your findings with professionals in this field.