Professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation, often called simply certification or qualification, is a designation earned by a person to assure qualification to perform a job or task. Not all certifications that use post-nominal letters are an acknowledgement of educational achievement, or an agency appointed to safeguard the public interest.
An engineering technologist is a professional trained in certain aspects of development and implementation of a respective area of technology. An education in engineering technology concentrates more on application and less on theory than does an engineering education. Engineering technologists often assist engineers; but after years of experience, they can also become engineers. Like engineers, areas where engineering technologists can work include product design, fabrication, and testing. Engineering technologists sometimes rise to senior management positions in industry or become entrepreneurs.
Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls.
Landscape maintenance is the art and vocation of keeping a landscape healthy, clean, safe and attractive, typically in a garden, yard, park, institutional setting or estate. Using tools, supplies, knowledge, physical exertion and skills, a groundskeeper may plan or carry out annual plantings and harvestings, periodic weeding and fertilizing, other gardening, lawn care, snow removal, driveway and path maintenance, shrub pruning, topiary, lighting, fencing, swimming pool care, runoff drainage, and irrigation, and other jobs for protecting and improving the topsoil, plants, and garden accessories.
Groundskeeping is the activity of tending an area of land for aesthetic or functional purposes, typically in an institutional setting. It includes mowing grass, trimming hedges, pulling weeds, planting flowers, etc. The U.S. Department of Labor estimated that more than 900,000 workers are employed in the landscape maintenance and groundskeeping services industry in the United States in 2006. Of these over 300,000 workers were greenskeepers for golf courses, schools, resorts, and public parks.
The NASA Clean Air Study was a project led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in association with the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) in 1989, to research ways to clean the air in sealed environments such as space stations. Its results suggested that, in addition to absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen through photosynthesis, certain common indoor plants may also provide a natural way of removing volatile organic pollutants.
The Electronics Technicians Association, International, Inc. is a US-based not-for-profit 501(c)(6) trade association founded in 1978. The association provides certifications in industries such as basic electronics, fiber optics and data cabling, renewable energy, information technology, photonics and precision optics, customer service, biomedical, avionics, wireless communications, radar, and smart home. ETA is also one of the 12 COLEMs for U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) testing. ETA works with technicians, educators, and military personnel. ETA also partners with companies such as Motorola Solutions to provide certification to their employees.
An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist, is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the United States, and the European Union. Other names used to designate the profession include agricultural scientist, agricultural manager, agricultural planner, agriculture researcher, or agriculture policy maker.
A biomedical engineering/equipment technician/technologist or biomedical engineering/equipment specialist is typically an electro-mechanical technician or technologist who ensures that medical equipment is well-maintained, properly configured, and safely functional. In healthcare environments, BMETs often work with or officiate as a biomedical and/or clinical engineer, since the career field has no legal distinction between engineers and engineering technicians/technologists.
The Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) sets standards for academic program accreditation, personal certification and professional development for educators and industry professionals involved in integrating technology, leadership and design.
The American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership association, established in 1950 as a forum for the exchange of information and expertise in the care and use of laboratory animals. Membership consists of approximately 12,000 individual, institutional, commercial and affiliate members. The national office is located in Memphis, TN.
A golf course superintendent is a person who professionally manages the labor, time, materials and financial resources needed to care for the turfgrass and landscaped grounds on a golf course. Golf course superintendents have also been referred to as greenskeepers and turf managers. Golf course superintendents are concerned with the environmental health of the golf course, the sporting needs of the players and the financial sustainability of the golf club or country club for which they work. Golf course superintendents communicate the status of the grounds and maintenance resources to members of the club’s management, owners or board of directors, green chairs and committees, golfers, vendors, suppliers, golf professionals, golf course architects and others in the golf industry.
Section 608 of the Clean Air Act serves as the main form of occupational licensure for technicians in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industry in the United States. The law requires that all persons who maintain, service, repair or dispose of appliances that contain regulated refrigerants be certified in proper refrigerant handling techniques. The regulatory program helps to minimize the release of refrigerants, and in particular ozone depleting refrigerants such as chlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons, as well as other regulated refrigerants as determined by Section 612. The licensure program complies with the requirements under the Montreal Protocol. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published implementing regulations at 40 CFR Part 82.
The National Apartment Association (NAA) is a non-profit trade association in the United States of apartment communities, owners and vendors. These member companies are also part of NAA with their membership at the local level. Members represent the various facets of the multifamily housing industry: apartment owners, management executives, developers, builders, investors, property managers, leasing consultants, maintenance personnel, vendors and related business professionals throughout the United States and Canada. NAA has its headquarters in Arlington, VA. Robert Pinnegar currently serves as the organization's president and chief executive officer.
In a 2005 NASA-sponsored study, it was estimated that the area covered by lawns in the United States to be about 128,000 square kilometres (49,000 sq mi). Lawn care is thus a popular business in the United States; proper maintenance, construction and management of lawns of various kinds being the focus of much of the modern horticulture industry. Estimates of the amount spent on professional lawn care services vary, but a Harris Survey put the total at $28.9 billion in 2002 . In her book The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession (1994) Virginia Scott Jenkins traces the historic desire to kill weeds. She notes that the current rage for a chemically dependent lawn emerged after World War II and argues that "American front lawns are a symbol of man's control of, or superiority over, his environment."
The Computing Technology Industry Association, more commonly known as CompTIA, is an American non-profit trade association that issues professional certifications for the information technology (IT) industry. It is considered one of the IT industry's top trade associations.
In France, the Répertoire national des certifications professionnelles (RNCP) has been created by article L. 335-6 of the Code de l'éducation.
The Master Arborist or Board Certified Master Arborist credential identifies professional arborists who have attained the highest level of arboriculture offered by the International Society of Arboriculture(ISA) and one of the two top levels in the field. There are several paths to the Board Certified Master Arborist, but typically on average each has been an ISA Certified Arborist a minimum of three to five years before qualifying for the exam. The certification began as a result of the need to distinguish the top few arborists and allow others to identify those with superior credentials. The ISA added specialty certifications of Utility Specialist, for those maintaining vegetation around electric utility wires, Municipal Specialist, for those with additional experience managing public urban trees.
The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) is a certification and standard-setting non-profit organization for the inspection, cleaning, and restoration industries. It is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV, United States, and has offices in the United Kingdom and Australia. The organization formulates health and safety related industry standards for built environment. As an American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-accredited standard-development organization (SDO), the IICRC works with international trade associations such as the International Sanitary Supply Association (ISSA) and the Restoration Industry Association(RIA) to develop consensus-based standards.
