Certification and accreditation in GIS: Prospects and pitfalls: Fid-Bau Portal

Certification and accreditation in GIS: Prospects and pitfalls

Obermeyer, Nancy J.

AbstractThe rapid proliferation of GIS adopters has raised concerns within the GIS community about assuring the competency of GIS professionals. The strategy most commonly suggested as a means to achieve this objective is certification. Certification involves the specialized training of individuals who are ultimately tested on what they have been taught. Those who pass the examination are certified. Accreditation is a system wherein education and training programs are designed to meet specific requirements as determined by representatives from the profession assessing specific training/education programs according to criteria to which the profession as a whole agrees. Each of these strategies has advantages and disadvantages. This paper discusses certification and accreditation as alternatives to the status quo, raises questions that the GIS community as a whole must consider before making any decision, and recommends that we begin to address this issue by asking the question, “How can the GIS community best assure the competency of its professionals?”, rather than beginning with the assumption that certification is the only means to this end. Since the primary objective of this paper is to stimulate discussion on haw the GIS community can best assure the competency of its professionals, it deliberately avoids making any recommendations about which strategy the GIS community should follow to assure the competency of its professionals, suggesting instead that the community formally consider this topic to achieve a resolution.