The Difference Between a Mold Certified Specialist and Licensed Professional

Learn more about your mold inspection specialist and the local certification body that recognizes the mold professionals you want to hire. Understanding more about how a body certifies its professionals will meet the standards within the water damage industry.

FunGuy Inspection & Consulting LLC has your mold inspection specialist in Los Angeles.

Third-party Accreditation

The Council of Engineering and Scientific Specialty Boards (CESB) is a nationally recognized third-party accreditation body founded in 1991 to serve the engineering community and related scientific fields. CESB accredits personnel certification programs that meet its standards for program content and operation.

CESB is one of three nationally recognized accreditation bodies serving the professional community, each of which provides a unique emphasis in its accreditation decisions:

American National Standards Institute (ANSI) — focuses on administrative procedures and program operation.
National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) — focuses on examination development and psychometrics.
Council for Engineering and Scientific Specialty Boards (CESB) — focuses on relevant field experience and content specific requirements.

Of these organizations, only CESB stipulates that accredited certification programs require specific education and/or field experience.

Click the “Accreditation” link at left to find out more about CESB accreditation requirements.

Certification and Licensing

Besides issuing third-party accreditations, one of CESB’s important functions is to explain the role of professional certifications and their complex relationship to state licenses and other credentials. The pamphlet “Engineering Credentials” summarizes this effort and makes the following observations:

Licenses are government-issued credentials that regulate professions in order protect the public from incompetence and misconduct on the part of practitioners.
Certifications are voluntary, privately administered credentials that attest to an individual’s mastery of a specific body of knowledge.
Certifications are time-limited credentials that require continuing professional development on the part of certificants. Certifications are not to be confused with certificates, which recognize the one-time completion of a course curriculum.
Accredited certifications have been scrutinized by an independent body to ensure that they are operated consistently with recognized credentialing practices.

The following video introduces the CESB pamphlet “Engineering Credentials”