Pathway to Certificate
By Professor Steve Linthicum
This month the ICT/DM Sector Navigator Team has introduced two pathways, the BIW and the ITTP. . The “pathway” is a series of identified courses that are tied to specific skills, business and industry has identified as critical for entry level employees. One key to “pathway” development is it provides a roadmap for the creation of skills certificates and certificates of achievement that will receive recognition from potential employers through a unified effort that focuses on marketing certificate importance.
The challenge for faculty interested in creating certificates is the complexity associated with the curriculum process that requires curriculum committee approvals and possibly approvals by the Chancellor’s office. Having tackled this effort as a faculty member at Sierra College, I want to share with you my thoughts on what I’ve been doing to achieve the creation of a BIW certificate of achievement. But first let’s identify the different certificates and their requisite approvals.
A good place to start is the gaining an understanding of certificate creation process is the background paper titled "Essential Elements for Strong Programs: Curriculum Development and Instructors," authored by The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. It details the processes associated with creating both “local skills certificates” and “certificates of achievement.” The table below provides some information that may help you gain an understanding of the differences between these two certificates.
CertificateType / Unit
Range / Approval
Process / Comment
Skills Certificate / Up to 17 Units / Local Curriculum Committee* / Cannot be noted on student transcripts.
Certificate of Achievement / More than 11 Units / Regional Consortium Buy-In; Local Curriculum Committee*; Chancellor’s Office / Can be noted on student transcripts. A more challenging process to complete.
* In multi-college districts there may be an additional requirement of obtaining the approval of a district wide committee associated with curriculum and program development.
The good news is you can seek both “skills certificates” and a “certificate of achievement” at the same time. That’s exactly what we doing at Sierra College. For our BIW certificates, the Department has identified eight (8) courses that will be utilized for our “certificate of achievement” resulting in a twenty-four (24) unit count. This will also result in the creation of two “skills certificates,” with one of the certificates aligned with typical office productivity applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and the other aligned with key entry level skills (Business Communications Information System Basics, Customer Service).
The reasons for following a path of skill certificate development are (1) we can get them in place in an expedited manner, and (2) students completing stackable skills certificates can be counted as a “success.”
As a faculty member, I’m strongly supportive of the efforts of my colleagues in developing unique programs, but we all need to recognize there are reasons for collaboratively creating uniform certificates like we are attempting to do with BIW. San Diego City College already has an approved BIW certificate of achievement in place. Sierra will have its own BIW certificate of achievement that mirrors the SDCC certificate. Down the road, as the ICT/DM sector team and colleges market this certificate to business and industry, when one of my former students moves to San Diego, the BIW certificate will have meaning to potential local employers.