The author of the article says (of the CPA exam):
Fact is, a passing score tells indicates very little about competence. A passing score indicates that a test-taker has accumulated some of the knowledge required of competent CPAs, but competence is all about execution.
Ah, but Jim, I can assure you that if someone DOES NOT know the BOK tested by the CPA exam, the chances of them being competant are between slim and none, and Slim has left town.
While I never sat for the CPA, I was quite familiar with the requirements. Most of my classmates who did take the exam studied for around 6 months after graduation before testing. Some of them were so stressed out by the time the exam came around I was worried about their health.
But to the question at hand, I agree that a certification scheme makes a lot of sense. I cannot help but thinking about how many (most) of our lawyers in early US history passed the bar, and were full-blown practicing lawyers, with little or no formal post-secondary education. If the rules we have now were in place then, our country would be a lot different. No Abe Lincoln, for instance. How many great people are being held down by our present system? Does anyone else know of a few great engineers that have only a high school education? I sure have known some.
The main problem I see with an emphasis on certification is the fact that it may result in a lack of emphasis on acquiring the communication skills needed for someone who is certified to share their expertise. In order to graduate from the accounting program we had to write an essay. This was back when the PC was juist getting started and I didn't know about any word processing programs, so I paid someone to type mine. It got kicked back to me because of spelling errors (not mine, the typist's) along with the requirement that I would type it myself, using Bank Street Writer, and not only print it out, but provide a copy on the disk. It made me mad, but, now, if I ever see that professor again I am going to give her a big hug. My point is that this type of requirement may be lost if standardized tests are used for certification.
Great article!