3 More Certifications to Make You Stand Out in the World of Risk Management
In the last few years, we’ve experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, growing political unrest, increasing natural disasters, geopolitical instability, and now, we are facing rising inflation and a foreboding economic downturn. All these events have created an unstable business environment, which accentuates risks and surfaces new exposures. More and more companies are realizing that they need to place a greater emphasis on risk management if they want to withstand these disruptive events. As a result, there is a growing demand for experienced and knowledgeable risk professionals.
Since there is an increase in demand for risk professionals, standing out amongst your peers is even more essential. One way to stand out is by obtaining professional certifications, which are industry credentials that measure and validate your expertise in evaluating and making decisions about risks.
Although the best kind of training is on the job, we are big advocates of obtaining professional certifications to advance your career. In a previous blog post, we shared 4 certifications that will make you stand out in the world of risk management. In this blog, we will be sharing 3 additional certifications you can achieve to deepen your knowledge of the risk management field.
1. Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU)
One certification that is beneficial to pursue is the Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) which is one of the most extensive certifications for risk professionals. The CPCU is issued by The Institutes is 100% online.
This certification will teach you about risk management fundamentals with an emphasis on managing risk data, modeling outcomes, and applying new risk technologies. The course topics include creating a stronger RM foundation, identifying and analyzing costly risks, leveraging tech in insurance, preparing for hazards, uncovering operational risks, optimizing risk for strategic advantage, and building consensus. This course is in the format of “relevant conversational content [and] case studies that reflect evolving real-world challenges.”
To achieve this certification, you’ll need to complete a total of eight courses. The first four courses are core courses that help you create a solid foundation in property and casualty insurance fundamentals. The next three courses are concentration courses where you’ll have a choice to focus on commercial or personal lines. The last course will be an elective course where you’ll have five different options to choose from. After completing the eight courses, you’ll also need to complete an ethics section. The entire certification can take anywhere from 18-24 months to complete. Once you complete all courses, you will be required to pass a virtual exam to demonstrate that you’ve grasped the material from the eight courses. If you pass the exam, then you’ll officially be CPCU-certified.
A CPCU certification is geared towards insurance underwriters, but it is also beneficial for risk managers, claim representatives, line of business managers and executives, agents and brokers, insurance litigators, and agency principals. It is important to note that you must have at least two years of experience in risk management and/or insurance to be certified. Since this is offered by The Institutes, you can also sample the CPCU 30–60-minute free micro-course to make sure that this is the right certification for you.
Achieving this certification is an optimal way to fast-track your career in risk management since the path to obtaining a CPCU offers risk professionals extensive knowledge surrounding a broad range of topics in the insurance world.
2. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)
Another valuable certification to have is the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) certification. The ERM is offered by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). This certification is designed for professionals who handle risk management for an organization (such as a risk manager), professionals who provide enterprise risk management advice (such as a consultant), or those who oversee enterprise risk management (such as board members). To be able to participate in this certification program, you’ll need to have at least 2 years of experience with enterprise risk management.
To receive the ERM certification, you’ll need to complete an online self-paced course and pass the examination within 90 days of completing the learning program.
The self-paced course is broken into seven modules that cover an overview of enterprise risk management, integrating strategy and performance, objective-setting, governance and culture, review and revision, and communicating reporting. The ERM certification will equip you with knowledge of the ERM framework and ideas on how you can integrate the framework into your organization's strategy-setting process through a variety of situational examples.
3. The Project Management Institute - Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a well-known professional association. Despite this, few people are aware that they offer a Risk Management Professional certificate (RMP). This certification is for senior risk management professionals, project managers, and C-suite executives.
The prerequisites to the PMI-RMP are a four-year degree (bachelor’s degree or the global equivalent), 24 months of project risk management experience within the last 5 years, and 30 hours of project risk management education. If this doesn’t apply to you, the other alternate prerequisite is to have a secondary degree (high school diploma, associate degree, or the global equivalent), 36 months of project risk management experience within the last 5 years, and 40 hours of project risk management education.
The PMI-RMP certification will teach you how to identify potential losses before they occur, assess project risks, mitigate threats, leverage and create opportunities, and save resources for your organization. To be certified, you’ll need to pass an in-person or online 115-question exam. After you become certified, you’ll need to earn 30 professional development units (PDUs) in risk management topics every three years to maintain the certification and to show that your knowledge is up to date.
Having a PMI-RMP certification shows that you are skilled in identifying, evaluating, and preventing risks and can identify opportunities for growth.
In an unstable business environment, the job market becomes even more competitive. Obtaining one or multiple professional certifications is a worthwhile way to deepen your knowledge of the risk management field, advance your career, and stand out amongst your peers. Even the most experienced risk professionals can still benefit from continual learning, as it helps you increase your knowledge toolkit in navigating new landscapes. Luckily for risk professionals, there are a lot of options available to help you expand your knowledge and sharpen your risk management skills. We’ve put together a list in hopes that we can help risk professionals choose the right one. And just remember, as a forward-thinking risk professional, you always must be on your toes and think about the next steps. This includes your career. You won’t be able to grow your career unless you continue to grow as a risk professional.