Are you Certified? Is the abundance of professional certifications strengthening or weakening the profession?

[Daniel Jost]

Following up on my article on professional certifications in July’s Landscape Architecture magazine…

Do you have a professional certification that we missed?

What are your thoughts on how professional certifications are affecting the profession?

Does every new movement within the profession need its own expensive certification program? Recognizing certain designs for their excellence is one thing, but should we create a special class of people who are involved with sustainable projects or crime prevention through environmental design?

Should new movements that have the potential to change the way we practice be handled through specialized acreditation programs or continuing education aimed at the entire profession? And if you feel you would prefer the later, how would that work?

[Mark Lerch]

I am glad you wrote an article addressing this topic. It does seem like there is a lot of pressure to validate ourselves with more and more credentials. I thought when I got my RLA I would be done. Now with the competition for work being so intense it seems inevitable that just to be marketable it will be necessary to become LEED certified, even if I question its effectiveness. What really concerns me is having to seek certification to perform tasks that we are supposed to be qualified to do already. In Florida we are allowed to do drainage and stormwater by the statute, 481 part II. This is immaterial to the people who really matter when it comes to stormwater, the Water Management District. Only plans signed and sealed by a P.E. are approvable for stormwater management. There is discussion about possibly initiating another certification process that will allow landscape architects to prove they are capable of submitting plans for stormwater management. I don’t know if they will ever be allowed to design plans for structural stormwater control or just non-structural alternatives. As your article described it does seem that the profession of landscape architecture is being diminished to specifying plants and providing details of planting procedures.

[Alison Endl Durst]

I was reminded of this article of yours just yesterday during a job interview. It was suggested that I “check out” three different certifications. While these all seem valuable each and of themselves, each one is time consuming and expensive. It’s expensive just to collect the study materials! It’s not even possible to evaluate the redundancies among all the similar certificates. I believe what is missing is some sort of hierarchy. I’d like to believe that completing my LARE will achieve some sort of terminal certification or credibility, but alas…

Is this just the price we pay for joining a field that encompasses so many subjects? The penance for all this beautiful diversity in our work and in our colleagues?

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Low paying profession with lots of expensive certifications and societies… hhhmmmm…. am I missing something?

[mark foster]

Ha!  How about MOLF.  Master Of Low Pay….I have study materials and they are only $ 1,200 for the complete course…..

 

[Thomas J. Johnson]

[Daniel Jost]

Funny how this topic is taking off all of a sudden…

 

While I studied landscape architecture and worked in the field for a few years, I am not currently practicing as a landscape architect.  I’ve been a full time writer and editor with Landscape Architecture Magazine since 2008, so I have no need for any certifications myself.  I just think this issue deserves discussion within the profession and that’s why I wrote about it.

 

(If you missed the original article, it appeared in July 2009.)

[Daniel Jost]

Three different certifications!  Wow!  Which ones? 

[mauiBob]

Everyone above made some great points!

The RLA is all you need and the rest is fluff. Complete Fluff! I would advice others to not waste time with LEED, AP, etc “until” you first get licensed. Then, do the other things to boast your ego. I see plenty of entry level grads with LEED and are they more knowledgeable than myself or someone with an actual license? No! It means they had the time to study for it during college years. In 3 years, LEED and the Green Building money making machine will redefine itself and add more clutter. Sort of like software with new versions.

[Heather Smith]

You mean if I get my Reiki certificate it won’t help me?

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Certifiable…? Quite possibly…

[Thomas J. Johnson]

Plants need healing too… and some of them don’t like to be touched… you could be a cacti reiki master… though you might need to move to Southern California though if you want to find clients…

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