What is INCE Board Certification?

By Jim Thompson

I have been INCE Board Certified for nearly 40 years, so I occasionally get asked about it? Since the certification program was started so long ago, I thought it might be useful to discuss certification and its continued relevance.

When INCE was founded, there was a concern about the knowledge and competence of people doing noise control. In the early 1970s there was a mix of highly capable professionals and others who thought installing a box around any noisy device was noise control. Out of this confusion came the idea for INCE Board Certification. It was felt, as a neutral professional organization, INCE-USA could provide a certification that would be accepted as a valid indication of basic noise control competence.

This certification process and the means to achieve certification have evolved over this 40-year period. One can now take a one-day exam or complete a three-course sequence to demonstrate competence to be certified. In addition, membership in INCE-USA is no longer a requirement and there is an independent board that administers the whole process. For more information on Board Certification, you can go to the INCE-USA website https://www.inceusa.org/.

However, the real point of this column is the meaning or value of Certification. There are government agencies that require Certification for consultants to insure their expertise in noise control. Many consulting organizations encourage their employees to be Certified for this and other reasons. Certification can be a beneficial attribute on your resume when seeking employment or in just demonstrating your competence to a potential client. I don’t think it is an overstatement to say that Certification has become an expected criteria for consultants in architectural and building acoustics. In other areas of noise control like transportation and environmental noise it is becoming more common and often expected.

Maybe my experience with certification will be helpful. I had worked for a mechanical and electrical consultant as a co-op student and had become the office noise expert over my time there. Certification seemed like a natural thing to do for me. So, in 1984 I took the exam at the INTER-NOISE conference and fortunately passed. For most of my career my employers did not care that I was Certified. I started as a university faculty member and then worked for many years for automotive suppliers and consultants. While I was working in noise control engineering, my competence in solving problems and managing noise control projects was much more relevant. Then later in my career, I applied for a position at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Here my Certification was important, and something brought up by every person with whom I interviewed. It was quite literally a badge of competence.

I guess the point of this discussion, is that Certification is important in some industries or with certain consulting clients. However, to me it is most important as something I accomplished and a reminder of the hard work I did to have considerable knowledge or and competence in noise control engineering. It is as or more meaningful to me than it may be to others at times.

Some of you may be thinking my employer does not require Certification. Why should I bother to get it? The first reason is that it is always good to have on your resume. Not knowing where your career may lead, it may be required or be valuable later in life. It is much easier to get early in your career when you are fresh out of school than twenty years later when the coursework is a distant memory.

Who knows, someday you may be wanting members of your team to get Certified. Your being certified may help to encourage them and provide an argument in support of their making the effort. At the least, you can serve as a good example.

Finally, it is good to remember that the larger the number of noise control engineers that are Certified the more valuable the Certification becomes. As it becomes the norm for competent noise control engineers, it becomes expected and more meaningful.

If you are Certified, I would like to hear why you took this step and what it means to you. If you are not Certified, I would appreciate hearing why not – what has prevented you from doing so?