I’m often asked what the letters after my name mean. CPLP stands for Certified Professional in Learning and Performance, and it’s a certification granted by the Association for Talent Development (formerly the American Society for Training and Development). There are about 1800 credential holders globally, and it is incredibly difficult to earn (speaking from the perspective of a lot of long nights and weekends spent studying and writing).
So what does it mean? First, it means that a CPLP has mastered the Body of Knowledge represented by the ATD Talent Development Profession Competency Model, which is made up about 1200 pages of dense content, and covers the following ten competencies:
- Managing Learning Programs
- Integrated Talent Management
- Coaching
- Knowledge Management
- Change Management
- Performance Improvement
- Instructional Design
- Training Delivery
- Learning Technologies
- Evaluating Learning Impact
Second, once a candidate passes the exam for those 1200 pages, they then must submit a comprehensive work product that proves they can apply every aspect of that mastery to a specific learning and development domain in the real world — a work project which they have led and documented completely. These work products are 250 pages, and highly difficult to pass; a recent cohort had a 40% pass rate. The work products are judged by a panel of CPLP holders chosen and trained by ATD.
The result is a professional who is a well-rounded expert in all the facets of modern talent management, and who has a proven ability to apply that expertise to bring substantive value to his or her organization. As a CPLP, there are few L&D-related problems I can’t solve, or talent management initiatives and programs I’m not familiar with creating and leading.
For those of you considering the certification, I’ve found it one of the most challenging and fulfilling developments of my career, and I highly recommend it.
Learn more: ATD’s Certified Professional in Learning and Performance
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