What does it mean to be a certified (or certificated) practitioner?

The first thing to make clear is that there is no difference between certified and certificated. Certified is a verb and certificated is an adjective but they both indicate the presence of a certificate that declares something is true. They should indicate that the individual has successfully been assessed as being competent by going through a certification scheme. As there are currently no accredited certification schemes in the animal behaviour and training sector the short answer to this question right now is ‘not a lot’.

What is a certification scheme?

A genuine certification scheme is a very detailed affair with a wide range of conditions that need to be met, the scheme is owned and administered by the certification body. Each role being certified must have a single standard against which all individuals are assessed. The quality of the assessment and a whole host of associated procedures must be clearly documented and then, in order to be recognised as a genuine scheme the certification body must be accredited by an independent organisation with the authority to do so. The overall purpose of certification of persons is to determine whether an individual has met specified knowledge criteria and recognise their competence to perform a task or job. Knowledge and competence go hand in hand but they are different and the two terms should not be confused. A certification body has the responsibility to ensure that only people who demonstrate competence are awarded competence certification.

What does it mean for a certification body to be accredited?

Accreditation formally recognises that an organisation has the infrastructure and skills to carry out work to specified standards, this recognition must be provided by an authoritative body. UKAS is the National Accreditation Body for the United Kingdom. They are appointed by government, to assess and accredit organisations that provide services including certification of persons against specific requirements. UKAS operates under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government through the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). It is DBT policy to recommend the use of UKAS accredited conformity assessment services whenever this is an option. DBT will only recognise accreditation of UK based conformity assessment bodies that has been granted by UKAS.

Accreditation determines the technical competence and integrity of organisations offering testing, verification and certification services (collectively known as conformity assessment). In short, UKAS ‘checks the checkers’. It is already being used by Government as an effective market-led tool for delivering policy.

BEIS has advised certification representative organisations in the UK that the only ‘authoritative statement’ of competence, that has public authority status, providing the last level of control in the conformity assessment chain is from the UK’s sole national accreditation body, UKAS. ABTC is currently progressing through the UKAS accreditation process and once successfully completed it will be the only organisation that will be able to award individuals certification that means something.