Mike Besspiata is director of facilities management at Georgetown College, Georgetown, Kentucky, and APPA’s Vice President for Professional Affairs. Until May 31, he can be reached at michael_besspiata@georgetowncollege.edu. Thereafter, he can be reached at michael3carol@yahoo.com as he follows his longtime dream of living in Arizona.
 
      For several years there has been a continual question raised within APPA: “Why doesn’t APPA
provide a means for people to become certified in the field of educational facilities management?” The question would surface from attendees of the Institute for Facilities Management and at APPA Board meetings for discussion, but no meaningful resolution was ever obtained.

      In May 2002, APPA’s Executive Committee heard a presentation by Knapp & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in the conception, planning, development, implementation, and revitalization of professional credentialing programs. The presentation gave the APPA Board some direction on what steps should be taken in the formal process of determining if “certification” is a viable option for APPA.

      The APPA Board recommended that the Professional Affairs Committee enlist the services of Knapp
& Associates to conduct a needs assessment survey pertaining to the development of a professional certification program for education facilities professionals. APPA would then make a “go/no-go” decision based on the information from this survey.

      The APPA Board and staff were interested in evaluating the feasibility of creating a professional
certification program with the following specific goals:
• Gauge level of interest in certification among potential candidates
• Identify perceived benefits of, or concerns regarding, certification
• Collect information on certification fees, eligibility requirements, and examination content

      The Professional Affairs Committee met in July 2002 and voted to proceed with the survey, and the APPA Board voted to approve the funding for the survey with results due back to APPA in time for the December 2002 Executive Committee meeting.

       A 20-item survey was administered, via two separate mailings, to a total of 4,472 recipients, including
APPA Institutional representatives (1,192), Associate members (2,477), and education program participants (these are non-APPA members who have attended APPA-sponsored events) (803). The survey was accompanied by a letter from the Vice President for Professional Affairs highlighting the purpose and importance of the survey. Also included in the mailing was a fact sheet explaining the purpose of certification, proposed program features, and distinctions between the proposed program and existing credentials and academic degrees. Recipients were asked to return the completed survey to Knapp & Associates as our independent researcher.

     The initial mailing, conducted via U.S. mail, yielded a return rate of 13 percent. In an effort to bolster the return rate, APPA decided to repeat the mailing, via e-mail, to the same survey sample group. The deadline was extended to allow time for compilation of results and executive summary in time for a presentation at the APPA February 2003 Board meeting. After the second mailing the return rate rose to 16 percent (27% of Institutional representatives, 11% of Associate members, and 14% of education program participants). Public institutions were represented in 59 percent of respondents, and private institutions represented in 41 percent. Seventy-three percent of the respondents have worked in facilities management for more than 11 years, and 97 percent of respondents are APPA members.

     Based on the survey results, the following conclusions and recommendations are listed from the report’s executive summary:
• Typically, the level of interest data obtained from certification surveys tends to be somewhat inflated. That is, the percentage of respondents who would actually follow-through with the certification process may well be less than the 77 percent figure who said they would become certified. Also, not all those who responded favorably may be eligible for the program.
• Only 26 percent of the respondents indicated they “definitely” would become certified, and this figure may be subject to some inflation as well. This group is typically the most reliable with respect to following through with certification, yet only a minority of the respondents fell in this category.
• Overall, the write-in comments tended to be relatively neutral compared to similar surveys. For the most part, the comments were not overly positive or overly negative. One exception was the education program subgroup, which appeared to be somewhat more enthusiastic about the concept of certification. Thus, while there did not appear to be strong opposition to the concept of certification, neither was there a ringing endorsement of the idea.
• In looking at the profession as a whole and the environment in which education facilities professionals work, there does not appear to be a strongly compelling or urgent need for professional certification at this time. For example, many educational facilities professionals already have widely respected credentials in engineering and architecture, and they believe these credentials to be sufficient for working in the field. The lack of a compelling need for the credential would likely reduce participation in the program.
• The development of a full-scale professional certification program is a complex endeavor requiring significant staff, volunteer, and financial resources. If APPA wishes to continue to explore the development of a full-scale professional certification program, we recommend the preparation of a business plan, which would include a competitive analysis, positioning and marketing strategies, an outline of the resources required, and five-year revenue and expense projections. The business plan would provide a comprehensive picture of what would be required to develop the certification program and would assist APPA in making the final go/no-go decision with respect to whether to proceed with program development.
• APPA might also consider developing a curriculum-based certificate, instead of a full-scale professional certification program. This process would involve adding an assessment component to APPA’s Institute for Facilities Management. This assessment would serve to verify that participants have mastered the content presented in the courses. Furthermore, the added rigor would enhance the credibility of the credential and distinguish it from a certificate of attendance.
• As suggested by the survey respondents, APPA could explore the feasibility of developing strategic partnerships with other organizations (e.g., NACUBO, BOMI) for the purpose of sponsoring either a full-scale professional certification program or curriculum-based certificate.
• Lastly, before proceeding with any form of credentialing program, we recommend that organizations carefully consider whether their resources would be better spent on other endeavors. In APPA’s case, these other endeavors might include promoting the profession and raising its visibility with key stakeholders, such as university administrators; enhancing access to the Institute through the introduction of online programming; or defining the body of knowledge for the profession and restructuring professional development offerings around this body of knowledge.

     Following a presentation of the entire report at APPA’s February 2003 Board of Directors meeting, a recommendation was made and passed by the Board that “APPA will not move forward on its own at this time for certification.” This recommendation means that APPA will not endeavor to create a certification process of its own at this time but will look toward partnering with someone in the future. The guideline set at the beginning of the survey process was go/no-go and based on the recommendations from the consultant; thus, a certification program provided by APPA is a “no-go” at this time.

     For more information or to review a copy of the full certification report, please contact Francine Moore, APPA’s director of marketing & outreach, at 703-684-1446 ext. 238 or francine@appa.org.