FROM THE EDITOR

Do you know the difference between an FMP and an FMA credential? How about LEED Green Associate vs. LEED AP? Is a CEM credential more prestigious than an EMC? And what the heck is the FMCOA credential anyway? (Okay, I made that last one up.) Sometimes, though, it actually is tough to tell not just which credentials are real, but which credential is right for your situation, or if you even would gain value from a credential at all.

With little question, successfully operating high-performance buildings in a high-performance fashion is become increasingly difficult and requires ever-increasing expertise and education. And it’s doubtful that anyone could make a solid case against the need for continuing education in some form in a rapidly changing industry with rapidly changing technology, best practices, and methods of collecting and analyzing data.

But how do you determine how to spend scant professional development dollars? There’s no single answer, of course — except that it’s critically important to educate yourself on the education. Just as with third-party product certifications, not all professional credentials are created equal. Some are built with an obvious vested interest or an obvious potential gain for the organization creating the credential. Some are for-profit, most, like those created and maintained by IFMA, BOMI, USGBC, and the Association of Energy Engineers, are not. So it really is important to dig into the details of the organization offering a credential — especially if it's one with which you're not immediately familiar. 

Another tip is simply identifying the credential most valued in your organization. Usually, this is obvious, but if it’s not, simply ask those who have been around a while. In some organizations, for instance, you can’t be promoted beyond a certain level without IFMA’s Certified Facility Manager (CFM) credential. If that’s the case for your organization, it’s a pretty good motivator to put in your time, effort, and money to achieve that credential.

As always, I’m interested to hear from you. Which credentials do you most value? Are those particular credentials valuable because of the education you received, or because of the credibility gained by affixing those letters after your name? Or both?
 

Cheers,

Greg Zimmerman, editor  

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Education Can Help Ensure High-Performance Buildings Stay High-Performance

This article highlights the importance of education to high-performance buildings, and provides some information on a new high-performance education program from BOMI.

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