What are 'qualifications' and 'certificates'?

What do those words mean to you?

What do you understand by them?

What do they indicate, imply or suggest?

Conversely, what do they not mean?

Ignore stock dictionary definitions for now: I'm genuinely interested in your personal interpretations and perspectives.

This ramble was prompted by the rapid proliferation of cybersecurity qualifications and certificates with a bewildering range of abbreviations from a large range of organisations offering an enormous variety of training courses, hands-on labs, online seminars, in-person classes and so forth.

With a seemingly endless stream of students keen to 'get into cyber' in this flourishing but competitive jobs market, certification is clearly a cash-cow for myriad training companies ... who, meanwhile, are battling their competitors to differentiate, protect, enhance and exploit their brands. Understandably: they are in business after all.

There's a shared interest in training providers pumping-up the value of the certificates both themselves and through their students - in other words, a win-win, a form of positive feedback.

However, at the same time, the bewildering array of certificates with its jumble of abbreviations must be a nightmare for recruiters and prospective students. Is CISM worth more, less or the same as CISA? How does either compare/relate to CISSP, CCOA, CCSK, CRISC, GCIA, CRTO or ... whatever? Is a candidate claiming certification as, say, an SCF Architect, the legitimate holder/awardee, and what does that mean anyway in relation to the current vacancy for a [something]? What about an applicant said to have been instrumental in an employer's ISO 27001 certification: is that worth anything at all, or just an empty claim? Does it make any difference if they hold a "Lead Implementer" certificate from some obscure outfit, or for that matter from one of the mainstream training or accredited certification companies? Oh, and what is 'accredited' anyway? Does that matter? Who 'accredits', how, and what does that mean in practice?

So, back to the questions: what do 'qualifications' and 'certificates' mean, to you? Let's talk!