Credentialing

Hi, colleagues,

This month marks two years since my organization piloted our certification program. Our prior market analysis results supported the creation of the program and we saw a great deal of participation in year one. While interest remains high, we experienced a participation decrease from year one to two. I've read comments on previous discussion threads that it generally takes new awhile for new certification programs, once launched, to really get up and running and see more participation. Our industry is familiar with certificates though certification itself is quite new. I'm curious if there are any concrete, comparative data available--or if folks are willing to share their experiences--about how long it generally takes new certification program participation to "ramp up." 

Thanks for any insights!
Joey

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Joseph DeSanto Jones
Executive Director
Higher Education Consortium for Student Affairs Certification
Washington DC
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Hi Joey. I don't have data to share but I can tell you that promotion and word of mouth are key. Our credentialing program (CAWA) stalled because of a terrible vendor managing everthing, and we had to restart the program 5 years ago when I joined the organization. It was slow going at first, but we are in a beta for an updated exam and received a tremendous response. My tips:

• Tap into the people who have the credential - ask them to spread the word and encourage colleagues; use their testimonials; offer discounts off recert for referrals 
• Use comms to explain the ROI and value of the credential - ex. on our job postings we ask if the credential is required or desired to elevate it; we have a sample question quiz to build awareness
• Conduct lunch and learns about the program led by credentialed folks - we call ours CAWA Curious Chats
• We have a group shot of all CAWAs at our annual conference and our booth at the conference is foused on the credential and is manned by CAWAs

Build awareness and build creditbility and they will come!

Good luck!

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Valerie Sheppard
Senior Director of Professional Development & Credentialing
The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement
vsheppard@theaawa.org
https://learning.theaawa.org/
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Original Message:
Sent: Oct 24, 2024 04:30 PM
From: Joseph DeSanto Jones
Subject: new certification participation

Hi, colleagues,

This month marks two years since my organization piloted our certification program. Our prior market analysis results supported the creation of the program and we saw a great deal of participation in year one. While interest remains high, we experienced a participation decrease from year one to two. I've read comments on previous discussion threads that it generally takes new awhile for new certification programs, once launched, to really get up and running and see more participation. Our industry is familiar with certificates though certification itself is quite new. I'm curious if there are any concrete, comparative data available--or if folks are willing to share their experiences--about how long it generally takes new certification program participation to "ramp up." 

Thanks for any insights!
Joey

------------------------------
Joseph DeSanto Jones
Executive Director
Higher Education Consortium for Student Affairs Certification
Washington DC
------------------------------