Dr. Cheryl Wild
Wild & Associates
Member of CCHI’s Certification Program Expert Advisory Committee

Have you ever run a marathon?

You don’t just drive to the starting point and start running – you need the right equipment – sturdy shoes, socks that won’t cause blisters, and clothes appropriate to the weather conditions. You need to eat right. You also have to train. And you don’t make up a training routine or a diet; you consult different marathon experts and/or hire a trainer. And then you practice – often with other experienced marathon runners so they can give you tips and suggestions. Why do you do this training and practice? Well, you want to be able to succeed and finish the race alive and well. They don’t have ambulances lining marathon courses for decoration.

Starting a certification program is like running a marathon but more complicated.

You need the right equipment (a legal entity, a staff to manage the program and communicate with stakeholders, a certification program, and a method for delivering the program). Marathon experts know about diet, training, and running a race. Certification expertise includes expertise in certification and project management, expertise in designing a certification program, marketing expertise, expertise in writing and reviewing tests, statistical expertise for equating and evaluating your tests, expertise in test delivery and scoring, and subject matter expertise. If you don’t have the necessary expertise in a marathon, you may not finish the race or you may injure yourself during the race.

What happens when you don’t have the right expertise in developing a certification program? Very frequently certification programs are started by individuals in the field of the certification who don’t know all the expertise that is needed in running a fair, valid and reliable certification program. If these individuals don’t know how to obtain the right combination of expertise, these programs often fail, or lose money until they are no longer supported by the industry. Certification programs go under all the time because not enough people apply for certification. This has a mild amount of harm to those already certified – they have invested time and money in a certificate that isn’t meaningful. More painful though is the harm that can come from developing a poor certification – a certification that isn’t valid, doesn’t distinguish from those who should be certified and those who shouldn’t.

Sometimes certification examinations are poorly written and questions do not have one and only one correct answer. Sometimes scores are reported incorrectly or errors are made in processing certificant’s data. These problems can all be prevented by being sure that all the appropriate expertise is involved in the design of the certification program. Using certification standards (e.g., NCCA standards and ISO/IEC 17024 standards) can assure you that you are meeting minimal industry standards, prevent harm to the applicants and the public with your new certification, and result in a program that can receive accreditation soon after it is begun.

If you don’t start a certification program correctly, you risk causing harm to your certificants and those who depend on the certification to be meaningful (e.g., medical professionals and patients). Once you realize your program isn’t good enough, it is much more expensive and disruptive to your customers to go back and fix your program.