Certifications

At a Glance
  • Certification is crucial; it can ensure high productivity while also defining the limits of legal liability.

  • Countries without national certification systems of their own can adopt international best practices.

  • Certification programs benefit both employers and employees.

  • Well-designed certification processes help validate workers with the required knowledge and skills. They allow workers to be productive from the first day on the job.

Case Studies

Key Resources

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Norwegian Oil and Gas Recommended Guidelines on Competence Requirements for Drilling and Well Service Personnel

These detailed guidelines present the necessary competence requirements for well service and drilling employees in the Norwegian petroleum ...

Recommended Guidelines for a Common Model for Work Permits

These guidelines look specifically at how to establish a common practice for the use of work permits. This model includes work permits for ...

Worker Certification: A Tool for Responsible Mine Closure and Worker Redeployment

This report discusses worker redeployment as a result of mine closures, and looks specifically at the Canadian Mining Certification Program ...

The Canadian Mining Certification Program

This online resource provides information regarding The Canadian Mining Certification Program (CMCP), the only one of its kind in Canada. ...

Topic Briefing

Certification is one of the most important ways that extractive industries can be assured of a workforce with adequate skills and qualifications. Certification is crucial for ensuring high productivity as well as defining the limits of legal liability. National certification schemes play an important role in this context. Where countries lack the resources to establish their own national certification systems, the adoption of best practices from other national systems may be a useful point of departure.

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From the perspective of the employer, certification programs simplify recruitment, increase employee engagement and commitment, increase employee satisfaction and retention, showcase investment in training, and recognize workforce value and hard-earned skills. From the perspective of the employee, national certification programs recognize knowledge, training, and skills; increase mobility in the workforce; and allow workers to compete for higher-level occupations and careers. Skills certifications can be mapped to career pathways throughout many sectors; this is applicable for students who need help choosing the right courses, for transitioning workers who need to develop new skills for new jobs, and for current workers who need to upgrade skills to adapt to new technologies or business processes.

In combination with postsecondary programs that are consistent with industry-identified skills, individual certification is an important tool for developing and maintaining a country’s technical workforce. Well-designed certification programs yield credentials with direct value in the marketplace and help validate that workers have the required knowledge and skills. Nationally and internationally recognized certifications cut across all professions and have been common for many years in some manufacturing and industrial sectors.