Board Certification

What Does "Board Certified in Security Management" Mean?

Throughout the world, the Certified Protection Professional (CPP®) designation is acknowledged as the security profession's highest recognition of practitioners. It is awarded based on experience and passage of an examination that provides an objective measure of an individual's broad-based knowledge and competency in security management.

Low awareness, particularly among non-security professionals, has been a challenge since the certification program was established in 1977. Past marketing efforts, which had limited success, focused on explaining the significance of the designation to chief operating officers and human resource managers.

What Inspired the Change to "Board Certified in Security Management"?

Other groups with professional certifications establish instant credibility by referring to themselves as "board certified." For example, most people do not know what the initials mean after a doctor's name, but they are comfortable once they understand the physician is board certified in a particular specialty. This clear communication subsequently translates into confidence in the individual's abilities. Other certification programs outside the medical profession also use the "board certified" terminology.

Objectives

The objectives of including the "Board Certified in Security Management" language are two-fold:

  • Establish a clear and consistent brand identification for the CPP® credential by including the tagline, "Board Certified in Security Management." "Board Certified" is readily understood by most individuals, given familiarity already established by other professions; "in Security Management" indicates a higher level of business acumen than does "Certified Protection Professional," as those three words alone do not express the level of competence that a CPP® has achieved.
  • Ensure that "Board Certified" and "Board Certified in Security Management" do not replace CPP® or Certified Protection Professional when mentioning the designation, but rather, they are used to support and explain the designation.

What is Being Done to Promote the Enhanced CPP® Designation?

Various materials have been developed and will be made available to CPPs® to help them promote the credential at the grassroots level. They will be available both in hard copy format and online in the CPP® segment of www.asisonline.org. In addition, the brand recognition of the CPP® designation should be increased simply by virtue of the fact that the logo itself now provides an explanation of the meaning of "Certified Protection Professional."

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