Historically there has been a shortage of college and university-level education programs focused on the knowledge, skills and competencies required for effective management of corporate security risk-related activities. Certification helped to fill this void and aimed to improve the quality and capabilities of security practitioners. However, senior-level security roles have evolved into wide-ranging and complex positions, and managers now find themselves accountable to their organization’s leadership team. It is not likely that any certification is a measure of their competency to succeed in these broad types of senior management roles.
Generally, the design of certification programs measure knowledge in a specific practice area. They focus on relatively narrow areas of knowledge and require specified levels of continuing education to maintain the certification. The number of certifications now available, together with the costs associated with acquiring them, make selecting those that would be of most value a challenging decision. Security practitioners can look to the demand for certification in the marketplace to aid in their choice of certification.