News Details

As you will recall in April’s Source article, Recertification Renovation 1.0, the certification program has been undergoing major improvement(s) over the past four years. The renovation project was initiated by the Certification Board’s desire to obtain a greater level of confidence in assessing continuing competence of certificants, and meeting mandatory accreditation standard revisions, both of which promoted our conformance to industry best practices for credentialing bodies. This increases the value and prestige of AACE’s certifications on a global basis.

 Three keys areas were evaluated:

1. Process/Procedure – How, what and where is recertification communicated

2. Program – How recertification is accomplished in accordance to credentialing best practices

3. Platform – How the recertification Process/Procedure and Program is managed by the organization and by the end-user

We have been tirelessly working on finalizing the last phase of our recertification renovation, while also designing our new association management system (AMS), which will launch in the near future. Before we look at the final phase improvements, let’s review what has already been accomplished:

1. Streamlined the application process

2. Improved the application layout

3. Developed and implemented the Recertification Activity Tracker

4. Restructured recertification categories and reduced the maximum CEUs to remain compliant with accreditation standards 

While the numbers may be small, the impact has been great. Each aspect required significant effort to accomplish and implement, not to mention the time and resources spent on research and consideration by the Certification Board.

In our research, we have learned that recertification is simply a cycle of being certified over and over, as shown in the recertification validity model (Figure 1). When initially sought, each certification has eligibility requirements to meet and an exam to pass, in order for a candidate to earn the designation. When recertifying, industry best practice standards stipulate that recertification serve as a means for the certificant to re-qualify in order to maintain the certification designation; this is referred to as continuing competency. Continuing competency is especially important when a particular certification’s minimum eligibility requirements have changed. One must assess: is the current certificant able to meet the revised requirements?

 Figure 1

Each certification is a stand-alone designation, with its own eligibility requirements and competencies for testing. Recertifying a certification must be approached with the same consideration as when originally initiated. This is accomplished through continuing employment in the field, professional development, industry contribution and volunteer service related to the industry; or taking the examination again. There must be a way to validate the certificant has remained competent in the certification’s main domain. In light of this knowledge, imparted to us from credentialing experts and industry standards, AACE must refine its recertification approach for certificants with more than one certification.

Historically, our recertification by CEUs program has permitted certificants who carry more than one AACE certification to receive an automatic renewal of all certifications with one application and one set of CEUs, which often synced-up certifications that hadn’t gone through a complete 3-year cycle; the application and CEUs had no direct correlation to a certification beyond one.  This approach creates a recertification validity problem and actually diminishes the value of certifications.

Consider a certificant with three certifications, who is not able to recertify by CEUs; how would they be able to maintain certification? They would be required to take each exam again; if passed it would ensure the certificant has satisfactorily maintained continuing competence for the specific certification. This approach is congruent with the recertification validity model and increases the value of certification.

AACE has an obligation to the public, our industry, our accreditation, and to other certificants to ensure each certification being renewed can be justifiably validated.  Because of this, the final phase of recertification renovation is how our structure within the new AMS will process multiple certifications.

Effective the day of launching our new AMS, each active certification will be recertified individually. That is not to say you must accumulate different CEUs for each certification. Depending upon the date initially obtained and expiration date, some CEUs can be applied across multiple certifications.

For instance, let’s say you have a CCP certification from 1/1/2013 until 1/1/2016 and a PSP certification from 3/1/2014 until 3/1/2017; you may include CEUs used on the CCP recertification application that occurred after 3/1/2014 on your PSP application. If you were to attempt to claim CEUs on the PSP recertification application for anything before 3/1/2014, it would be rejected automatically.  The new AMS system has date logic built in to the application to circumvent these types of errors.

A great feature of the new AMS is that you can begin your application upon certification or recertification, for the entire 3-year period, in your AACE profile. When you’re ready to recertify, you simply select the submit button, pay the application fee, and wait for staff review and approval.

With this structure change, the fees have changed too. Table 1 will show member and non-member pricing for recertification, once the new AMS has launched:

Table 1

None of the final recertification renovation changes will take place until the launch of AACE’s new AMS and website, which as of this announcement is undetermined.

We just wanted to make sure you are aware of the changes in advance so that you know what to expect, and to provide an understanding of how this long-term renovation is important for maintaining the integrity and standards of a best-in-class credentialing program.

There will be more details shared via video and tutorials in the future to help you navigate through the new AMS system. Stay tuned and stay informed.