The news story told of a 300% increase in college tuition over the past five years. Former students explained their fear of deep debt from college loans hanging over their heads as they move forward in life. Parents, in the story, told of cashing in retirement savings to fund their child’s college education.

Every day we encounter these gloom and doom stories about the rising costs of college education partnered with joblessness and underemployment. The dream, we are taught, is to get a college degree and it will automatically open the doors to a high-paying job.

Another Way

Employers hire for several reasons. An ideal candidate should:

• Fit the company’s culture,
• Support the firm’s values and purpose,
• Be loyal and trustworthy,
• Demonstrate skills and capabilities, and
• Commit to lifelong learning.

Most jobs today rely on knowledge workers who must stay current in their field. Top management requires flexible, fast, and adaptable employees for long-term success.

Employers may be initially screening job applicants for college degrees, but because of the nature of today’s fast-paced, globally competitive work, employers also need staff to hit the ground running. Hiring is done for specific skill sets so team members can fill a capabilities gap at the firm. Often, work experience is what differentiates job applicants.

Even more so, professional certifications differentiate potential employees. Professional certification demonstrates education, experience, and aptitude within a given field of study. For example, New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification demonstrates knowledge and experience in strategy, portfolio management, life cycle management, new product development (NPD) processes, tools and metrics, teams and organization, and market research. Project Management Professional (PMP^®) certification affirms capabilities in initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing projects bounded by constraints in scope, schedule, and budget.

Promotion of managers in engineering roles is assisted by Professional Engineering Manager (PEM) certification demonstrating skills ranging for management, organizing, and people to operations, supply chain, and regulatory compliance.

The Value of Professional Certification

Professional certifications have several advantages are advanced college degrees:

• Less expensive;
• Depth of (vs. generalized) topic knowledge;
• Rigorous, standardized testing;
• Demonstrated work experience; and
• Commitment to continued professional development.

Most certification programs cost less than 0.5% of an advanced college degree (assuming about US$50,000 for a degree). While a college degree prepares a graduate for any number of potential jobs and industrial fields, professional certification is focused: new product development, project management, or technical engineering management. Unlike colleges and universities which have a wide range of instruction and course requirements to graduate, professional certification use the same, standardized test around the world. The measuring stick is easy to understand.

Finally, the most rigorous professional certifications require a validated work history to show experience in the field. Hand-son experience is exactly what employers are hiring for today and licensure as an NPDP, PMP, or PEM demonstrates knowledge and experience.

Continued Professional Development

The world is changing fast. New theories, tools, and techniques are emerging almost daily. To maintain professionalism, a person must keep up with emerging trends, new practices, and improved problem-solving methods. Continued professional development includes earning professional development hours (PDH) or continuing education units (CEU) required by certifying bodies such as the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), Project Management Institute (PMI®), and the American Society of Engineering Management (ASEM). PDHs validate lifelong learning. Employers benefit by having an educated, adaptable, and highly-trained workforce that is engaged in their careers.

PDHs are easy to earn at Simple-PDH.com. We provide a combination of narrative, video, and audio files with downloadable study guides for you to study. All PDH courses include a practice test for candidates to validate and learn the material whether it is a basic refresher training or new, emerging topic. You can take the practice test as many times as you want. Finally, prepared by the learning materials and practice quiz, you earn your PDH credits by passing a final quiz. It’s simple!

NPDPs and PMPs requires 60 PDHs every three (3) years, and PEMs require 45 PDHs every three (3) years. To learn more, try our popular Disruptive Innovation training course and earn 1 PDH toward you NPDP, PMP, or PEM renewal.

Study. Earn. Learn. Simple. New courses are being added for PEM, PMP, and NPDP professional development every month, so check back often! If you have questions about existing or upcoming PDH courses, please contact us at [email protected] or by phone at 281-280-8717.

 

Study. Learn. Earn. Simple.

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