The positive impact of professional certification

How do we know this? We simply asked.

Not so long ago, we conducted a survey among more than 1,800 individuals and decision-makers across 91 countries and 24 industries.

The results of this survey have formed the basis of a new AXELOS report “The Power of Professional Certification”. And while we don’t want to give away all the interesting facts, we do want to share a few insights.

But first of all, let’s look at why we wanted to do this research.

If you look at how training is done in a traditional way, the best way to test knowledge and whether the students have understood the course material is for them to sit an exam. And if they pass, they get a certificate as proof of their success.

But things have moved on and the traditional way doesn’t necessarily mean the best way. In the past you had to attend an actual classroom training course but nowadays, we have many more options. You can choose between classroom learning, Attend from Anywhere online courses as well as things like LinkedIn Learning or Coursera. And it’s no longer absolutely necessary to sit an exam at the end of every course.

So, the question is, is certification still a valuable indicator of knowledge? To find out, we asked if organizations and individuals still value certification as a sign of expertise.

The good news is, the answer to this is clearly, yes, they do.

According to our survey, 97% of decision-makers and 84% of individuals say certification has a positive impact, bringing higher efficiency and employee satisfaction.

One of the big benefits of holding a certificate is transparency. Simply attending a training course does not guarantee that you actually learned anything (you might have just spent most time going through social media on your phone). But a certificate for passing an exam conveys a specific message to employers, employees and peers alike: This person has knowledge and professional expertise. This person has worked on their career development. This person is interested in gaining new skills.

Our survey’s results confirmed that. Only one in twenty decision-makers think non-certification courses are more important than certification ones. When it comes to individuals, it’s less than one in ten that share this opinion.

It’s not all about the individual and their skills though. Supporting professional certification on an organizational level also has its advantages: Business partners can see the skill level of the workforce and this shows that the organization is actually able to do the work.

So, this report is good news for everybody who holds professional certification, thinks about gaining professional certification in the future or supports their teams in getting certified.

Access the full The Power of Professional Certification report.