They are also a great way to advance your career, make more money, and stand out on job applications. Sometimes they are built into graduate programs while other times they are a more affordable—and accessible—alternative. Why are advanced certifications key to professional growth across different industries? Let’s get into it.
Certifications Bring You to the Next Level (Literally)
The most common reason that professionals pursue advanced certifications or graduate degrees is because they literally let you take on higher-paying work. In education, you need an advanced certification to go from being a teacher to a principal (though to be clear most districts will also require you to have a graduate degree).
In nursing, certifications can allow you to take on more specialized positions. In social work, same goes. Certifications can allow you to take on jobs in the tech field. You can get certified in computer languages or cyber security protocols.
In all of these cases, the certification not only increases your skills but also your salary. In the next few headings, we will take a look at how this can play out in several employment categories.
Education
In education, there are several ways you can advance your career with additional certifications. The most common is to start with graduate school. Graduate school is not exactly what most people mean by certification, but it does open the door to additional career advancement opportunities.
For example, let’s say you are a special education teacher. You get a master’s degree in something also related to special education. Three years later, you decide you might want to try your hand at being a school principal.
You can’t do that with a master’s degree in special education. Do you need to go back to graduate school?
No. Now that you already have a master’s degree, you can qualify for a principal position with a specialized certification.
You could do the same thing to pivot into any administrative position. Once you have your base credential in place, certifications make it possible to pivot into new responsibilities with relative ease.
Healthcare
Nurses have SO many ways to specialize through advanced certifications. They can use them to pivot into highly specialized fields like forensic nursing, educational nursing services, and so on. You can also take things another step further with some type of advanced practice degree.
Advanced practice nursing is most associated with NPs—nurse practitioners. However, there are several other positions to keep in mind as well. Clinical nurse midwives. Advanced specialists. Physician assistants, and so on.
Specializing in nursing comes with several benefits:
- Dive deeper into what you love. Focus on healthcare concepts that you feel the most passionate about. Floor nurses have basically no control over who they see or what they focus on day in and day out. The more specialized your qualification, the more control you have over what you do. It might not be a lot of control—treating sick people is still the name of the game. However, any little bit helps.
- Make more money. Nurses don’t get into healthcare to get rich, but who would turn their heads at a nice upper-middle-class lifestyle? Advanced practice nurses make $100,000+ a year, making this career path a great way to do some good and boost your earnings at the same time.
While graduate programs aren’t easy you should have support if you are already working as a nurse. Talk with your employer. Not only will they often help work around your school schedule, but they may be able to provide tuition assistance. Plus? Good way to put the word out early that you might be eligible for higher-end work pretty soon.
Social Work
Social workers are in a similar position to nurses. You can work in the profession with only an undergraduate degree but it is at the graduate or post-certification level that you get to focus on what you are the most interested in. For example, if you want to work in clinical social work, you need a specialized MSW.
If you want to do a smaller, more lateral pivot, you can still use undergraduate-level certifications to move into school social work. You could be a case worker. A community outreach worker. Even a probation officer.
As with so many other professions, certifications open doors.
A Perfect Solution?
If you are unhappy with your current job, seeking specialized certifications can be a good way to move the needle in the right direction. That said, you should understand that it isn’t exactly a cakewalk.
These are college-level courses at the very least and often the material is closer in content to what you would experience at graduate school. Competent professional that you are, this, of course, is not beyond your reach.
You should also understand that these programs aren’t free. While they aren’t usually so expensive that you will need to take out a loan, it’s money out of our pocket.
Speak with your employer about what kind of tuition assistance they can offer.
Think also about applying for the jobs you are interested in now. Some positions will allow you to start while you work on your certification. You’ll usually be supervised until you can complete the required qualification but it gets your foot in the door right away.
