Certification Program Management and Operations
We can help you manage and grow your certification program. Maximize revenue, reduce costs, and leave the details to us.
What is Certification Program Management?
Certification refers to the process of attesting to the skill of a professional, like taking an exam to be certified as an accountant. Certification programs are businesses, sometimes very large ones!
If you don’t have the in-house team to manage the business of certification, we have the software platforms and expertise to do so. We can set up a registration portal, process applications and payments, determine eligibility, schedule exams, manage SME committees, and all the other important tasks needed to make this a success.
Transform your certification program
Test Development
Of course, the exam itself must be good quality. You can't just write 50 items in your basement, throw it up on an LMS, and call it a certification exam. Scroll down for more information on test development.
Organization & Governance
Most importantly: is there a firewall between the Education and Certification parts of the organization? Also, be prepared to provide bylaws, audited financial statements, and much mroe.
Certification Policies and Documentation
Do you have a Candidate Handbook? What is your retake policy? Recertification after a year? Appeals? Eligibility pathways to take the exam in the first place?
Business Operations
How do you take registration and payments? Schedule exams? Send out results? It's a lot of work, and our experts can take care ofit.
Developing a certification exam
Job Analysis
You need a defensible way to define what your test will even cover. This starts with a job analysis. A committee of subject matter experts (SMEs), will generate a list of tasks in the profession, then we obtain quantitative data from incumbents on which tasks are most frequent and important. This data is invaluable.
Test Blueprints
We then convert the job analysis results into a blueprint for the exam. You’ve seen those… 16% from Domain 1, 22% from Domain 2, etc. But these numbers aren’t just arbitrary – they will be defined by our data on what tasks or knowledge is most important and frequent for the profession.
Item Writing
A high quality item is the basic building block of any exam. You’ll need to train your writers, have them write items, then put the items through a QA workflow – and be able to document this all for Accreditation.
Standard Setting
Your exam needs a cutscore that defines who passes and fails. If you simply pick a round number like 70% with no justification, you are in for a heap of trouble. You’ll need a panel of SME to complete what is known as a modified-Angoff study, or similar approach, to provide a cutscore with extensive quantitative data loaded with SME expertise.
Statistical Reports
All exam forms need a comprehensive statistical report done to check on the quality of every single item. Moreover, you are required to submit summary reports every single year. This work requires a PhD psychometrician – or software designed to automate one.
