ASQ certification is a mark of career excellence that affirms your commitment to quality and demonstrates your expertise and knowledge of state of the practice. Most important, it is acceptance and recognition from your peers.
To maintain the integrity of your certification, ASQ requires that you recertify every three years — either by RU credits or by testing. The purpose of recertifying is to ensure that as an ASQ-certified quality professional you maintain the same level of knowledge originally demonstrated when you passed the written examination. If you do not recertify, your certification will lapse and ASQ will no longer recognize you as “certified.”
It is the desire of the Software Certifications Board to maintain the highest degree of integrity within Software Certifications. To maintain this integrity a certificant must maintain a current knowledge base of quality principles, practices, and technical knowledge as the information technology industry advances or becomes obsolete. By requiring that the certificant maintain and increase their level of competency through various avenues of education and activity, the Board is assured that the certification standards of integrity are being met and the value of the certification designation is being maintained.
A certificant must obtain and report 120 Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits and pay a $100US administration fee (see Payment & Refund Policy) every three years. A three year recertification period has been chosen because of the high pace of change in the information technology field. Individuals who have not participated in learning activities for more than three years will not be current in the field. It is critical to the integrity of Software Certification programs that individuals holding certification properly maintain competence and skill in their respective disciplines. Recertification assures the visibility of that maintenance.
For each three year reporting period, the certificant must record and submit an appropriate Recertification Journal and payment. Failure to meet certification requirements by the recertification deadline results in automatic loss of certification. Becoming certified again requires reapplication and resitting for any required assessments and examinations in effect at that time. In this way, the Board is assured that the candidate has maintained a professional knowledge base in spite of a failure to report continuing education through the recertification process.
