A Vendor-Neutral Approach
to Certification Program Development
Vendor neutral means the certification is not connected to a specific training company, specific training program, or any other enterprise that requires that you purchase a membership, training program or service from them as a requirement to sit for the examination for their certification.
As such, the professional certification is not branded to a specific vendor identity.
CCHI creates credentials for healthcare interpreters, by professionals practicing in the field (a representative sample of healthcare interpreters) using a vendor neutral, independent process for certification creation and recertification. Accreditation agencies for certifying bodies, including the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) and Professional Certification Accreditation by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recognize the process CCHI is using as “best practices."
Confusion in certification as linked to a vendor was first evident when Microsoft created courses that would certify individuals to service the Microsoft products. NCCA and ANSI treats that situation as product certification, not the same as a certification for a critical care nurse, pharmacy technician, physician’s assistant or healthcare interpreter, for example. Here’s another way to see the difference: CompTIA is an organization that created vendor-neutral certifications for software professionals by involving people from Microsoft and many other software companies, plus software users, in the development and delivery of the certification. CompTIA issues the certification, not any one vendor supporting their organization.
The bottom line: CCHI has vendors participating in developing its certification program, just as it has interpreters, community based organizations, hospitals and others. But no vendor (or other entity for that matter) can override the processes which CCHI is following to develop a valid and credible certification program. That is, no individual or organization controls the process and our certification program was started from scratch without any preconceived notions of what certification should be -- we are being driven by the data we gather through the Job/Task Analysis rather than any vendor or organization's existing training or testing program.
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