Certification
Evolving Attitudes toward Education
by Gene Smith, LPC Smith is president of The Loss Prevention Foundation, the not-for-profit organization charged with the responsibility of managing certification. He was formerly president of the industry’s largest executive search and consulting firm. During the past fifteen-plus years, Smith has provided career counseling for thousands of industry professionals nationwide. He can be reached at 704-837-2521 or via email at gene.smith@losspreventionfoundation.org.
senior executives running large loss prevention organizations who go back to college to finish a degree or seek a higher one. Despite how busy LP executives are, they find the time for university study because it is that important to them. While I have spoken passionately over the years for the need to embrace higher education, I have always respected anyone who has climbed the career ladder without it. Some of our most successful industry-leading professionals have no degree. However, those who don’t still recommend that others should get one, and I can assure you they all have encouraged their kids to get one. Why?
Many of us remember when we only had the National Retail Security Survey, produced by Dr. Richard Hollinger of the University of Florida, and the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention (NASP) as professional resources. It wasn’t long ago that our industry had no LP-specific magazine, with only broad security magazines that occasionally mentioned the term loss prevention in an article. We had no academically accredited research, such as what Dr. Read Hayes and the LPRC have provided in recent years. We were still transitioning from retail security to loss prevention and still very focused on apprehensions and investigations.
Educational Resources in LP
Certification is not a substitute for a degree, and a degree is not a substitute for professional certification. There is a reason why most reputable professions embrace both. They truly complement each other.
Most would agree that our industry has changed and evolved for the better. We now have professional resources, such as LP Magazine, LP Foundation, and LPRC, that other professions have had for years. We now have degrees that are industry-specific from several universities. And certification, once just a vision by a handful of forward-looking LP executives, is fast becoming a standard in loss prevention like other professions. Human resources and internal audit have had certification for years. Teachers must have degrees as well as certification as do financial planners, insurance agents, realtors, accountants, fraud investigators, and safety and risk professionals. Why, after receiving a bachelor’s degree and often a master’s degree, do these professionals still have to be certified? Certification is not a substitute for a degree, and a degree is not a substitute for professional certification. There is a reason why most reputable professions embrace both. They truly complement each other. If we want to continue to elevate our profession to the level of our peer professions, we must embrace the common place of college graduates entering our profession in higher numbers than in the past. We must support professional certifications like the LPQ, LPC, CFI, and CFE. We must encourage our working professionals to enroll in traditional college or convenient online courses. Attitudes toward educational degrees and professional certifications have changed rapidly in recent years. The LP Foundation has worked with several institutions who have launched or are about to launch industry-specific programs. Most recently the LPQ and LPC certifications
this industry has to offer.
Many of us also remember when the only certification remotely related to the private sector was the certified protection professional (CPP), a broad security-focused one. Then, finally, Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates created the certified forensic investigator (CFI) certification that addressed a very important skill set—interviewing and interrogation. It was not that long ago that most companies seldom asked for a college degree as a preferred requirement. If they did ask, it was likely a criminal-justice degree; never a business or finance degree. Those of us who have studied the educational needs of our profession for years have admired and respected two types of executives. There are those executives who have ascended to the highest levels without a formal college degree. However, after you interview them, you see they clearly have a degree from the “College of Hard Knocks,” which is very valuable. Equally impressive are the many
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May - June 2013
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