The Relative Value of Professional Accreditation

Do some capital letters on your business card make you an expert?  Does their absence make you incompetent?

The obvious answer is no.  So what possible reason is there to pursue a law degree, earn an accounting designation, earn your professional assocation certification, or for that matter, any other official recognition of accomplishment or learning?

At least two reasons that I can think of:

• Gaining credibility; and
• Tempering your skills and experience in the fires of the accreditation process.

Professional associations weren't created in isolation. They were formed by people who had something to gain from working with others to gain skills, share knowledge and raise the profile of their profession.

Accounting has one of the more rigorous accreditation processes, and they've managed to parlay that into credibility in business circles.  You'll notice that they focus a lot of attention on improving mangement skills, which doesn't seem to be a focus for business communicators. Maybe that's why they've been so successful. Yet, even with all that rigour, you still see at least three different kinds of accounting designations, and anyone can do accounting without accreditation as long as they don't claim to be accredited. They're called bookkeepers and a number of other names, and they do damn good work.

Anything that pushes you to re-examine your methods and prove that the way you do things works is a good thing. Yes, such processes can stifle creativity. If you are approaching public relations projects with some radical new approaches, you may find the people who run the accreditation process don't understand the value of what you're doing, or question your methods. Welcome to the downside of innovation.

Is accreditation the only way to show the world you are qualified? Nope. 

Is it worth pursuing?  Only if you think the effort will bring real value to you or increased perceived value to your reputation.

Background

Todd Defren argues that because a person with no accreditation can practise public relations with excellence, there's no need to make accreditation mandatory.

Kami Huyse argues that accreditation is a valuable step toward becoming a better practitioner.   She responds to Defren's comments.

Stuart Bruce weighs in, saying accreditation is valuable to the PR profession's credibility.

(It's not too late to join the International Association of Nobodies.)

---

I responded to Stuart in his comments section:

This is a bit of a chicken and the egg debate.

You see the same issue in academia, where the qualifications for achieving a doctorate don't necessarily involve learning how to be a good teacher. Then universities set their academics loose on students, explaining that their research skills and quality of dissertation writing qualify them to pass on their learning to others.

Teaching takes a whole new range of skills that some academics have, and others are lacking. A PhD. does not magically transform them into an excellent teacher.

Accreditation is a good measure of whether someone: 1) Understands the fundamentals of business communications; 2) Has shown they can apply strategic thinking; 3) Decide to devote the time and energy to the process; 4) Values the accrediting organization enough to want to affiliate themselves with the accreditation being offered.

There are a lot of people who have 1-2, but don't have either 3 or 4.

Update:  Todd Andrlik lists the various bloggers' positions on this topic, and creates a comparison table of the various PR accreditations available.

Leo Bottary, who authors the Client Services Insights blog, e-mailed to let me know comments were turned off on this post. Not sure how that happened, but I've noticed sometimes Qumana (my blog editing tool) defaults to comments off.  I didn't catch that yesterday.  Sorry if, like Leo, you tried to leave a comment, and were unable.

Tags: prsa, cprs, communications, accreditation, professions, associations, reputation, business, careers

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Comments

[Kami Huyse]

Eric; As you say here, accreditation is only a piece of the puzzle, but it is a piece and does have value, which is why I started this thread in the first place. It seems to me that some don't find it valauble (which is fine) and then they feel that those who took the time to get it, were "not busy enough with real work," as one commenter put it.

[Lauren Vargas]

Perhaps you are generalizing the APR creativity level. The APR process has not stifled me a bit. Rather, it has honed my organization skills and getting back to basic fundamentals present in both traditional and new media. APR has failed a public relations test of its own.

[Ike]

Now that I'm a Nobody who doesn't blog, do I have to turn in my IAN accreditation?