PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
February 2019
81
SECTOR
INSIGHT:
.
mil
E
ducation
and
P
rofessional
D
evelopment
in
the
G
eospatial
I
nformation
S
cience
and
T
echnology
C
ommunity
By Jared Ware and LTC Merlin F. Anderson
Geospatial Certification: Educating Yourself on the Benefits
A
s the geospatial community grows and opportu-
nities for jobs expand, organizations will search
for employees with relevant certifications to fill
positions in their respective organizations. For an
individual, achieving the full benefit of any geospatial certi-
fication will require an understanding of the current geospa-
tial landscape as well as determining personal and profes-
sional goals. According to the website Statista.com, market
revenue of the global geospatial industry in GIS/Spatial
Analytics alone will grow by approximately $10 billion per
year between 2018 and 2020. The
GeoBuiz 2018 Report on
Geospatial Industry Outlook and Readiness Index
outlined
that the geospatial industry market is witnessing unprec-
edented growth in all geographies with high double-digit
growth in the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and South
African regions. During 2013 to 2017, the market grew at an
estimated 11.5%, and is forecast to grow around 13.6% be-
tween 2017-2020. The geospatial workforce is itself diverse,
multidisciplined, and multifaceted, so how does a geospatial
professional continue to attain skill sets to demonstrate their
value in this booming industry?
Is Certification Right For You?
In 2003, the authors of “Building the Geospatial Workforce”
understood that “the growth of this market demands support
of the education, training, and development of geospatial
professionals and specialists.”
1
Past debates with respect to
certification have ranged from identifying an optimal frame-
work for a path to certification to the criteria that defines
an academic versus a professional certification. Those are
all worthy topics of research and debate, but what most geo-
spatial practitioners want to know is what is the best cer-
tification for me, because is it both a personal and profes-
sional goal that requires the dedication of time and money
to achieve. There are a few questions to ask when thinking
about pursuing a geospatial certification: Is the certification
right for your personal and professional goals? Do you need
the certification for a particular position, for acquiring a new
skill, or for continuing education requirements? Does the cer-
tification further your development or does it lock you into
a specific discipline? Does the certification expand your op-
portunities? Is it accepted as a rigorous achievement? Is it a
one-time certification or are there continuation requirements
and costs? Finally, is it the appropriate certification for your
current career level or the level you wish to attain?
The Value of Certification
Over a decade ago, on a training and education program at
the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) was de-
veloped with the goal of workforce certification, by the Divi-
sion Chief of the Advanced Geospatial Intelligence Training
Program at NGA. The goal was to develop tracks for various
tradecrafts creating courses to allow basic, intermediate, and
advanced levels of attainment. The central theme was that
true certification required education, experience, and train-
ing interwoven into a credible programmanaged by a board of
multidisciplinary experts. It was the precursor to the current
certification program for the National System for Geospatial
Intelligence (NSG), which is managed by NGA. During that
the time NGA was working towards implementing baseline
education and training requirements, and integrating the
new requirements with those which had been in the work-
force for several years while transferring legacy skills sets to
a more digital and software-centric analysis and production
environment. Individual as well as team and organizational
certification requirements were developed to get to a true and
acceptable workforce certification program. Overall, we found
that certification must be academically credible, workforce
centric, and broadly accepted to hold any real value across
the geospatial community.
Which Certification Is Right For You?
Once you determine that “the juice worth the squeeze” in
terms of time and cost, the next step is researching which
certification is right for you. Is the certification too narrow
or too broad for your ultimate goal? Is it focused on a specif-
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 85, No. 2, February 2019, pp. 81–84.
0099-1112/18/81–84
© 2019 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.85.2.81
