The Importance of Collaboration for Certifications

Workcred
3 min readFeb 25, 2022

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Workcred has developed a set of case studies that reveal just how powerful collaboration is to certifications. In fact, collaboration among key stakeholders can have a positive and long-term impact on credentials and workforce development, as outlined in each of the case studies showcased in this series. Each study also describes the purpose and need of the credential, the partners involved, and the challenges and lessons learned from using a collaborative model.

The initial three studies focus on certifications for risk management, pharmacy technicians, and energy professionals.

Case Study 1: Institute for Energy Management Professionals Certifications

Seeing the need for qualified individuals to consult, audit, and verify energy management practices and energy performance, stakeholders came together to develop a standard, ISO 50001:2018, Energy management systems — Requirements with guidance for use.

To qualify individuals in the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy sought a certification body to develop the schemes and objective competencies for a professional certification program in energy management. In response, the Enterprise Innovation Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology proposed the launch of the Institute for Energy Management Professionals (IEnMP), an affiliated research center, to become the certification body. This case study highlights how three different certification programs were developed and maintained, and details the navigation of related challenges along the way.

Case Study 2: Pharmacy Technician Certification Board Certified Pharmacy Technician Certification

There are currently no national standards for pharmacy technician certification, education, training, or regulation. As a response to the lack of national standards, this case study describes how the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board brought key stakeholders together in 2017 to discuss all elements of pharmacy technician certification in an effort to find common ground and continue moving pharmacy practice forward.

The efforts yielded strong areas of consensus regarding knowledge, skills, and abilities for entry-level technicians across all practice settings. Several of the stakeholder organizations made substantive changes to accreditation standards and certification requirements. Additionally, several state regulators have taken concrete steps toward standardizing requirements for pharmacy technicians.

As the case study emphasizes, stakeholder buy-in, regulatory mandates, or a combination of both are critical for the success of national pharmacy technician certifications, accredited education and training, and practice advancement.

Case Study 3: RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional Federal Government Micro-Credential

This case study explores how the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) and its partners developed the RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional Federal Government Micro-Credential (RIMS-CRMP-FED) to advance enterprise risk management practices within the federal government. RIMS-CRMP-FED enables enterprise risk managers within federal agencies to make risk-informed decisions to create and sustain value.

The study also focuses on how using a public-private sector, collaboration-model approach resulted in the development of a credential that focuses on the specific competencies of public-sector enterprise risk managers and is applicable to enterprise risk managers across federal agencies. Furthermore, the document details how the RIMS-CRMP-FED micro-credential provides the base to assess the competency requirements of all candidates, thereby assuring comparability and consistency between practitioners of federal enterprise risk management.

Further case studies will be developed and released in this ongoing series highlighting collaborative efforts in certification. If you have an idea or know of a certification program that would fit this criteria and would like Workcred to consider including it in this series, please reach out to info@workcred.org.

Originally published at https://blog.ansi.org on February 25, 2022.

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Workcred

At Workcred, we connect and educate stakeholders to create a more integrated and effective credentialing system. Learn more at https://www.workcred.org