Certificates, When should we use them?

[Karl]

I am currently involved in a debate over the value of issuing certificates at the end of courses.

There are currently two schools of thought in our organisation

1. Certificates should be issued for any training attended as it provides a portable record of attendance and is useful evidence of continuous learning.

2. Certificates should only be issued as evidence of achievement and not merely as evidence that someone has turned up.

The debate is not quite as polarised as I have implied and there are a few shades of grey in between.

I personally lean towards the concept of providing a record of attendance and reserving certificates for those situations where there is clear evidence that the individual has met the learning objective of the training. However, I'm interested to find out what other organisations are doing in relation to certificates and waht works/does not work.

[oliverduggan]

Hi Karl,

In my opinion, it is always best to provide a written confirmation of attendance to an employee....this has the following benefits for managers (which is the direction im writing this from)

1, It formalises the training for the person - In their mind they were expected to learn something and implement the knowledge within the workplace

2, The company has a record of what training has been done on what areas with which employees.

3, Results allow the formation of a training matrix to ensure even coverage of training across employees...(its easy to miss someone if they were sick and hard sometimes to carry out follow up sessions)

4, It is very helpful in the resolution of performance related problems with individuals....a reminder to them you could say....."you have been shown this" etc.

5, It doesnt take much time and is more professional.



For people who excel within the training.....often a verbal recognition / reward in front of their peers goes a long way, or the one i like the best is a written record to the relevant senior manager of their performance on the course.....this can lead to new outlooks on certain employees and potential opportunities based on a single piece of feedback....they can then in turn be personally rewarded by that person.....?

Just my two penneth worth

[Florence]

Hallo,
There are various kinds of certificates that a training consultant can issue at the end of the course. Issue the certificate of attendance to acknowledge your participants availability throghout the course duration. On the other hand, issue a certificate of perfomance to detail the achievements attained by your participants in the training. You should however know that some achievements cannot necessarily be detailed on a piece of paper.

Thanks.

Florence.

[naladawi]

I'll go with option (1).
Certificates when given at the end of the training course motivates participants and fills their sence of achievement.
In addition, we can't test the understanding of all participants at the end of each course, sometimes it is not feasible.
For instance in my training on presentation skills (9 - 11) participants, it is hard to ask each of them to present (they need time to prepare and it will add huge time to the course} and if someone is performing below the standards that mandates depriving him/her from the certificate, it will be very embarrasing)