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2111 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 600

Arlington, Virginia 22201

Testimony of Steven C. Halsey

Halsey, Rains & Associates, L.L.C.

on behalf of

The Coalition for Professional Certification 

The Subcommittee on Benefits

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee

September 9, 1999

Thursday

10:00 am

Mr. Chairman and Committee Members, thank you for this opportunity to testify on the issue of professional certification and its impact on veteran employment.  My name is Steven Halsey, and I appear before you today as the spokesperson for the Coalition for Professional Certification (CPC).  The CPC is a diverse group of private sector national certification bodies who have banded together to assist in the promulgation of effective governmental policies, laws and procedures relative to the private sector certification industry (Attachment A).

The CPC brings a wealth of experience from a wide range of professional disciplines together in its perspectives on certification policies.  From engineering technicians and technologists to medical technologists, lactation consultants to crane operators, high voltage electrical testers to orthotists and prosthetists, the CPC truly offers a uniquely broad-based voice for the growing professional certification industry.  Our mission is simple.  We seek to promote the ethical development and use of professional certification programs.  We work with Federal, state and local governments and agencies to provide clear, consensus-based guidance to both certificants and end-users of certificants.  We are proud to note that the GAO white paper summarizing their on-going analysis of certification and its use by Federal agencies comes to you as a direct result of our work with the House Small Business Committee to gather data in this area.  As the CPC continues to be called upon to offer our expertise to the Congress, we are pleased to offer our assistance to this Committee and all others interested in improving the transition experience of our nation’s veterans into the private sector workplace.

We are particularly pleased to be testifying alongside The American Legion today.  We have been working with The American Legion for some time to coordinate our efforts on this important issue.  We note that the American Legion has long taken the leading role among veterans’ service organizations in recognizing and effectively addressing this issue.  From their landmark Study of Civilian Licensure and Certification for Veterans to today’s hearing, The American Legion has consistently distinguished itself as a respected and thoughtful voice for improving the employment prospects of our veterans through better understanding and utilization of professional certification.

As individual certifying bodies, the participants in the CPC have interacted with the branches of the military, The Veterans’ Administration, The Department of Labor, Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Services (DANTES), and Veterans’ Service Organizations (VSOs) in varying degrees with varying success.  From programs which specifically work to communicate with active-duty personnel prior to their departure, to programs which seek to accurately evaluate military training and experience in an effort to determine certificate qualifications, the CPC participants each have a unique experience in this process.  To briefly summarize this wide range of experiences, I would say that the biggest problem we face involves communication.

As we are all aware, effective communication requires the transference of information between two or more entities. As I would not presume to describe to this Committee, particularly among this distinguished gathering of military expertise and experience, the military side of this equation, I will focus on the professional certification perspective.  Modern private-sector professional certification is largely a nonprofit and consensus-based endeavor recognized by the practitioners in the profession and by their employers as critical to the safety of the public and essential to swift, accurate assessments by others in the profession.  Credible programs seek to maintain low certification costs in an effort to avoid discriminatory barriers to entrance and advancement in their disciplines.  As most applicants enter the certification process with similar credentials (educational background, technical training, occupational experience, etc.) the relative cost of accurate evaluation of the applicant with atypical credentials rises.  This is not to say that the certification program discourages unique educational, or occupational experiences but, rather, that the program, forced to operate under a limited budget in an effort to avoid turning away applicants of lessor means, finds a high relative cost of the atypical applicant.  In this context we see that the individual with a military background presents a unique challenge to the certification program.  In the highly specialized world of technical training and evaluation, the private-sector jargon (which comprises the vast majority of the certification universe) evolves at an alarming pace.  When we recognize that the military largely employs its own, unique, jargon in both training and job classification we can see where a conflict may arise.  As each unfamiliar piece of applicant data is presented to the certification program, the relative costs rise as the program re-adjusts to evaluate and include the new information.

We are fortunate in that we see a relatively straightforward solution to this type of problem.  If the certification industry is better able to interact directly with the bodies responsible for creating and maintaining these designations, the communication barrier may be reduced on a larger, more cost-effective scale (i.e. providing standardized translation materials to all programs from one source).  We realize that huge strides have been made in this area, particularly in conjunction with our educational institutions.  While we applaud this progress, we are forced to note that our industry has been notably absent in this arena.  It is with this realization that we offer our assistance and expertise in the hope of improving a situation for which we are, in part, responsible.

We are pleased to note the recent House passage of H.R. 1568, The Veterans’ Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act of 1999.  This bill, jointly sponsored by both The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and The House Small Business Committee, takes a large step toward improving the communications between the private sector and the military/veterans’ communities in the creation of the Professional Certification Advisory Board (PCAB).  This board will greatly facilitate the dialogue between these two groups and, as a result, increase the efficiency of all parties interested in veterans’ job placement.  We are proud to note that the CPC has been appointed to this board to represent the private sector certification industry.  We applaud the fine work done, both by this Committee and The Small Business Committee and their staffs, on this matter and eagerly await Senate passage and final enactment.

As specific remedies for a less-than-ideal situation, we would like to suggest the following:

·        A national conference bringing together representatives from the Congress, The Department of Defense, The Department of Veterans’ Affairs, The Department of Labor, Veterans Service Organizations, and private-sector certifying bodies to address this issue and begin a process of improved communication and coordinated effort.

·        Expansion of the Montgomery GI Bill to cover reimbursement of legitimate certification costs to veterans and military personnel in transition.  Recognizing that there are noncredible programs operating on the diploma-mill format of the past, we suggest a minimal standard (Attachment B) to avoid federal funds being paid to unscrupulous certification vendors.

·        Creation of a central location within the Federal government (ideally The Department of Labor) for information relating to the reliance on, and recognition of, private-sector professional certification programs.

We realize that the charge might be made that we have an interest in these proposals, which goes beyond an altruistic desire on behalf of our professions, and centers more on our relative influence or financial health.  To help demonstrate the true intentions of the CPC and its participants in this matter, we are suggesting a veterans’ discount from our normal private-sector certification fees.  The exact amount will be determined by an equation reflecting the anticipated volume of applicants in a profession, recognizing the nonprofit nature of our programs.  The CPC participants would honor this discount, but, more importantly, we will work to make this an industry standard.  As we work with this Committee and the distinguished panel of participants to improve our interactive relationship, we pledge to work on an outreach basis with our colleagues in the professional certification industry to provide the highest quality services at the lowest cost to our veterans and to all of our certificants.

In summation, let me stress our commitment to improving the hands-on involvement of our industry with the military and veterans’ communities as well as with the Federal government as a whole.  The CPC recognizes the responsibility of the professional certification community to engage as an active participant in public policy if it is to expect professional treatment by our policy makers.  We welcome this opportunity to work with our armed forces and veterans’ organizations to develop better strategies for positive interaction between the public and private sectors in the critical area of human competency assessment and professional certification.  As private-sector professional certification is often perceived as a quasi-regulatory activity, it only makes sense that we work with our colleagues at the Federal, state and local levels to improve our performance and enhance the usefulness of this increasingly vital tool for rapid, accurate, skills assessment.

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