The Guide to National Professional Certification Programs, Third Edition

The job market continues to change. Highly skilled and specialized workers are in demand. Traditional education cannot meet all the needs to create specialty skill workers. Certification provides up-to-date training and development while promoting individual or professional skills and knowledge in a focused manner. Certification as a way of continuing professional eduction can also be more cost effective.

Employee certification is a lasting trend that will become stronger as we continue the transition to a workplace that emphasizes focused skill development and proper deployment of knowledge workers. Companies seeking to recreate themselves as learning organizations are looking for efficient ways to include certifications as part of their developmental repertoire.

This third edition of The Guide to National Professional Certification Programs is restructured to be easier for professionals, professional organizations, and individuals to use. All sponsor information and certification descriptions are updated. New programs and sponsors have been added, including vendor-based specialty certification tests for competence in a particular area or subject. Indexes are improved to be quick and easy to use in looking up programs, sponsors, and certification test information.