To Whom Does Certification Have Value?
As a degreed chemist who has been in the Water Treatment industry since 1972, I have met a number of Certified Individuals. Some of them are quite impressive, while others know surprisingly little about the industry in which they are Certified.
The purpose of Certification should be to set some minimum value for competency, but it seems that in some cases the Certifying Agent uses the certification merely as a means to generate cash flow for the Agency. Once an individual is certified he/she has to continue to do revenue generating things with the Certifying Agency to maintain the currency of the Certification. Essentially the Certifying Agency is selling the Certifications for a profit.
I find that there are two purposes for Certification.
1. The individual who gets certified uses that Certification to boost his/her worth in the market place. This helps them get more customers and make more money.
2. The Certifying Agency uses that Certification to establish a new cash flow stream, and thus make more money.
It is to these two groups only that Certification has real value.
To give the Certification the appearance of value, the Certifying Agency sometimes tries to seed the ranks of the Certified with highly qualified individuals from within their Agency. These individuals lend their knowledge and reputation to support the value of the Certification even though their competency was not derived from the Certification process.
I wonder what the liability to the Certifying Agency could be when a Certified Individual does some serious damage to a facility. In court it could be argued that "You certified this individual to be competent when he clearly was not".
Due to the profit motive involved, I would recommend that consumers still be suspicious when dealing with Certified Individuals. Things are not always what they seem. Regardless of the alleged Certification, I would recommend that consumers ask the following of their potential Water Treatment Service Supplier:
1. How long have you been in this business? 2. Who can I contact who will recommend you? 3. What experience do you have in treating equipment like ours? 4. What are your qualifications to handle our business? 5. Do you have any technical degrees? 6. Who do you go to for technical/laboratory support? 7. What metrics do you use to measure the success of your programs? 8. How often can I expect to see you? 9. Can I see examples of your written reports to other customers? 10. Is your company accredited by the Better Business Bureau? 11. What are your limits of liability insurance? 12. Can I get a copy of your insurance certificate with our company stated as additionally insured?
About the Author
Dick Hourigan is a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel with 35 years of service. While in the Army, he was in both Special Forces and the Chemical Corps. On the civilian side he is degreed analytical chemist who has been in the water treatment business since 1973 in various capacities. Dick runs the operations at TheWaterTreatmentStore.com which has sales all over the USA and in 40 foreign countries. http://www.TheWaterTreatmentStore.com
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