Deciphering the CEU

Deciphering the CEU – The Continuing Education Unit
by Janet Wall, Founder, Career Planning Academy

Abstract: Many, if not most, credentials and certifications in the career development field require continuing education to earn or maintain the credential. Continuing education is typically documented by the completion of training measured in CEU clock hours. This article explains the sometimes confusing definition and use of CEUs in our field.

Continuing education is important in the field of career development so that students and clients can be served by professionals who have the latest knowledge, skills, and competencies. Various professional associations require its members who hold certifications or credentials to participate in professional development activities in order to maintain currency in the field, and to document the successful completion of or participation in the training. Despite the widespread use of CEUs, there remains a fair amount of confusion about them, what they mean, how they are calculated, and how they are used. This article attempts to add some clarity to the situation.

What is a CEU? CEU or Continuing Education Unit was defined in 1970 by the US Department of Education and the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET). These groups studied non credit continuing education activities with an attempt at

• Standardizing the definition of a CEU as a measurement of continuing education and training (CE/T)
• Supporting the diversity of providers, activities, and purposes in adult education without sacrificing quality. 

The general definition of a CEU according to IACET is 10 contact hours of “participation in an organized CE/T experience, delivered under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and qualified instruction.” Most career development related organizations use this definition for their certifications and credentials. Organizations have differing requirements for the numbers of CEUs or clock hours for their various credentials.

How are CEUs Used? Some organizations use the CEU to initially obtain the credential.  An example of this is the National Career Development Association Credentialing Commission which requires applicants for its credentials to support the application with documented professional development related to career development concepts. The Commission accepts clock hours from National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) approved continuing education providers, such as CEUonestop.com as well as that of its own and affiliated state organizations.

Another use of CEU clock hours is to maintain a credential or to recertify. For example, the Global Career Development Facilitator Certification requires 75 clock hours of continuing education every 5 years to maintain the certification. The Commission of Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC) for the Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) requires 100 clock hours every 5 years.

The chart gives an overview of the various career development related certifications and credentials and how CEUs are used. 

Clock Hour Certification/Recertification Summary Chart

Organization	Certification or Credential	Clock Hours Used to Obtain Credential?	Clock Hours Used to Maintain or Renew Credential?
Center for Credentialing in Education (CCE)	Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF)	No	75 documented clock hours every 5 years
	Board Certified Coach (BCC)	No	70 documented clock hours every 5 years; 10 in your specialty area
	Distance Certified Coach (DCC)	No	20 documented clock hours every 5 years
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)	National Certified Counselor (NCC)	No	100 documented clock hours every 5 years
	National Certified School Counselor (NCSC)	No	100 documented clock hours every 5 years
National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP)	Certified Workforce Development Professional (CWDP)   Specialized Endorsements in Job Seeker Service, Business & Employer Services, Management Services or Youth Services	No     No	60 documented clock hours every 3 years     20 clock hours related to the endorsement area’s specialized competencies every 3 years
Commission of Rehabilitation Counselor Certification (CRCC)	Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC) and Canadian Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CCRC)	No	100 documented clock hours every 5 years
	Certified Vocational Evaluators (CVE)	No	80 documented clock hours every 5 years
	Certified Work Adjustment Specialists (CWA)	No	80 documented clock hours every 5 years
	Certified Career Assessment Associate (CCAA)	No	80 documented clock hours every 5 years
International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (IAEVG)	Educational and Vocational Guidance Practitioner (EVGP)	Yes, as proof of competency	30 clock hours every 3 years
National Career Development Association Credentialing Commission (NCDA-CC)	Certified Career Services Provider™ (CCSP)	Yes, as proof of competency	30 documented clock hours every 3 years of NBCC, NCDA, or State CDA training
	Certified Career Counselor ™ (CCC)	Yes, as proof of competency	30 documented clock hours every 3 years of NBCC, NCDA, or State CDA training
	Certified Master of Career Services™ (CMCS)	Yes, as proof of competency	30 documented clock hours every 3 years of NBCC, NCDA, or State CDA training
	Certified Career Counselor Educator™ (CCCE)	Yes, as proof of competency	30 documented clock hours every 3 years of NBCC, NCDA, or State CDA training
	Certified Clinical Supervisor of Career Counseling™ (CCSCC)	Yes, as proof of competency	30 documented clock hours every 3 years of NBCC, NCDA, or State CDA training
	Certified School Career Development Advisor (CSCDA)	Yes, as proof of competency	30 documented clock hours every 3 years of NBCC, NCDA, or State CDA training
Career Directors International (CDI)	Master Career Director Credential (MCDC)	36 hours of documented continuing education	36 CEUs (36 hours of documented continuing education) every 3 years
Career Thought Leader Consortium (CTL)	Credentialed Career Manager (CCM).	Yes, as proof of competency	30 CEUs (30 documented clock hours) every 2 years
State Counseling License	Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) (name varies)	No	Check state requirements.

Summary: It is the responsibility of the certification or credential holder and/or applicant to understand the role CEUs and CEU clock hours play in the career development industry, and to know the requirements and standards of the organization sponsoring the certification. This article was written to help career development professionals sort out the various requirements and expectations.

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Dr. Janet Wall is Founder of Career Planning Academy, an NBCC approved continuing education provider. Career Planning Academy offers online, self-paced multimedia courses, certifications, and webinars in the career development area. She is an award winning career development professional and NCDA Fellow. She led the development of the ASVAB Career Exploration Program for the US Department of Defense, and is the author of several career development related books. Contact her at janet@careerplanningacademy.com.

Assessment Selection Issues

Career Planning Academy: Continuing Education Opportunities for Career Professionals (Assessment)

(Original published in the January-February Issue of the Career Development Network Newsletter)

by Janet Wall

Career Planning Academy is an approved continuing education provider. Completing any of our online, self-paced courses, certification, live webinars, or recorded webinars earns you clock hours for such certifications as the NCC, LPC, GCDF, BCC, CWDP, EVGP and CRC and the NCDA credentials. Typically these certifications require about 50 -100 clock hours of continuing education every five years. This column is devoted to professional development related to Assessment in Career Development.

Deciding on a career often depends on three major elements – what we like or want to do (interests), what we are good at (abilities and skills), and who will pay you to do what you like and can do (labor market information and jobs).  When all three areas are working in harmony, we experience the sweet spot in our career progression.

Typically, assessments play a critical role in the first two areas – determining what we like to do and what we are good at. Because this is true, it is imperative that career and workforce development advisors, counselors, and coaches understand what factors are important in using good assessment with their students and clients, and how they can be sure the assessments they use are of appropriate quality.

Here is a short list of factors career development professionals can use as they go about selecting and using assessment in their work.

1. Purpose. Why are you using assessment to begin with? What is it you want to know about clients to help them in their career decision making? Until you determine the purpose for which you are using assessment, you should not move forward. Just because your supervisor said you should use an assessment or just because your colleagues are doing so, is no reason to use one or the same one yourself.  Your focus should be on what clients need to know about themselves, and how that that information relates to careers. Identify the purpose first and foremost.
   
2. Quality. Presuming you have identified why you are using an assessment, the next step is finding the best one/s for your purpose. Best is typically related to two major technical characteristics – reliability and validity. Reliability relates to how consistently the assessment measures what it is purports to measure. High reliability is important because if an assessment is not measuring consistently, then we have no idea if the result is accurate.

Validity is a word career development professionals bandy about frequently in assessment discussions, but often the real importance of that term is not fully understood. So often when someone asks for a recommendation for a valid assessment, it conveys that the person is not clear on what validity means.

The assessment community has created many very high quality assessments. Naming just a few are the SAT, ACT, ASVAB, SDS, SII and others. These assessments have research studies that show how the results of those assessments can and should be interpreted and used. Although these assessments are highly researched and supported by hundreds of studies, they are not valid for all situations and purposes. Thus, validity is narrowly related to how the results can and should be used; it is not an inherent characteristic of the assessment. Thus, there is no such thing as a valid assessment. Validity deals with the assessment results and the evidence that shows how you can use the results for certain interpretations and uses, not for just any purpose.

If there is little or weak reliability or validity evidence available on the assessment you are considering, don’t use it.  Using it would be unprofessional and unethical, and it has the potential of harming your client. Professional ethics standards support this claim.

3. Interpretation. Working with a student or client on interpreting an assessment is both an art and a science. The art part comes with appreciating your client’s ability to understand the interpretation and using language they comprehend and can relate to. You need to provide sufficient information so that clients understand and can act on the results, but not so much as to overwhelm them.

The science part relates back to the validity concept in that your interpretation of the results to and with the client should not deviate beyond what the validity evidence supports. Limit your interpretation only to what the authors or publishers have confirmed through research studies.

Just as one example of a misinterpretation: sometimes career development professionals might steer clients that have an introverted preference to careers and jobs that are quiet and don’t related much to people. There is no evidence that shows introverts cannot be successful in high relatability jobs. To shut people out of certain careers based on little evidence is at best misplaced, and at worst immoral.

One last point: as career professionals, we must be competent in the assessment and not go beyond our training. Some assessments require specific training and others do not. Even if training on the assessment is not mandatory, it is incumbent upon us to know the assessment thoroughly and read all the available information on it, including the technical manuals.

4. Utility. This concept relates to budget, utility, ease of administration, and storage of results. These real world conditions have to be thought out well before we start using assessments. There are some assessments that cost dozens and hundreds of dollars per person. Some of us do not work in institutions that can afford that. We need to look for comparable quality assessments that fit the budget we have. Free assessments are only an option if they meet our stated purpose and have substantial technical quality.

Utility deals with the mode of administration. We may not be able to use an internet delivered assessment and only paper and pencil will do. We may not be able to store hundreds of paper and pencil assessments, and only computer storage will do. We or the client may not have several hours to take an assessment. There are other practical aspects to consider.

If you are interested in upskilling on the use of assessment in career and workforce development, Career Planning Academy has a number of relevant courses and webinars that relate.  They are:

Selecting the Right Assessment (4 CEU clock hours)
Assessment Issues for America’s Job Center Staff (4-5 CEU clock hours)

Visit the website https://careerplanningacademy.com for more continuing education opportunities. Sign up for the VIP Mailing List offering periodic discounts: www.eepurl.com/EUz8f

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Janet Wall, EdD is Founder of Career Planning Academy, author of McGraw-Hill’s ASVAB books, co-author of the Ability Explorer assessment, and former manager of the ASVAB Career Exploration Program. She is an NCDA Fellow and FCD Instructor.

careerfacilitator@janetwall.net  https://careerplanningacademy.com