Certification of Persons

The benefits of having Personal Certification include the following:

• It serves to demonstrate that the certified professional holds defined competencies based on best practices.
• It allows employing organizations to make an informed selection of employees or services based on the competencies that are represented by the certification designation.
• It provides incentives to the professional to constantly improve his/her skills and knowledge.
• It serves as a tool for employers to ensure that training has been effective.

Personal Certification is a formal recognition by PECB, which states that the individual has proficiency within, and a comprehension of, a specified body of knowledge. Certification is a vital component of every professional as it provides evidence that certified professionals hold standardized competencies based on best practices. Certification can also serve as documented evidence of a professional’s qualifications, competencies, and experience.

In order to apply for a PECB certificate, you need to register an account. If you do not have a PECB account already, please click here. This manual will walk you through the steps that you should follow to apply for a specific certification.

If your application has been completed successfully, and if your references have provided their response on time, then the certification process will take up to a week.

Information on the application status (accepted, rejected or additional information request) will be communicated to you through email.

Your certification process will take longer if your references do not respond on time.

Incomplete:  Please login into your member account by entering the credentials that have been provided for your member account registration and go to ‘My Certifications’ section. Then click on ‘Incomplete’ and finalize your application.

Reference Pending: You can either change your reference or resend a notification to the existing one. In order to change your reference, please log in at your PECB account and go to ‘My Certifications’. Then click on ‘Pending Reference’ and then ‘Change Reference’. If you want to resend the reference email address, just click ‘Submit’.

Application is In treatment: An application turns to ‘In treatment’ once the references have provided their response and the application is ready to be reviewed by the Certification Department. The review process takes about one week; meanwhile, the decision will be communicated to the applicant through email.

If your reference is not responding, you can change it using your PECB Account. To do so, click on the My Certifications tab, and then click the Reference Pending button on the right side of the application which will open a form you can use to change your reference.

You can easily verify PECB Certificates with the following form. Please fill in your Last name + Certification Number and click the search button.

The certificate expiration date is stated in the PECB certificate. Additionally, the same can be checked by logging into your PECB user account. A PECB certificate is valid for three years from the issuance date. The issue date is also stated in the certificate.

Once the certification requirements have been met and your application has been validated, PECB will send a notification on the final decision. If the decision is positive, a copy of the certificate in electronic format (PDF) will be uploaded to your profile in your PECB user account. The certificate can be downloaded and printed directly from your account.

PECB certificates are valid for three years. In order to maintain a PECB certificate, it is required to demonstrate that the candidate is performing certification related activities on annual basis. In addition, it is required to pay an Annual Maintenance Fee (AMF).

PECB does not issue hard copies. Certificates can be downloaded and printed directly from the PECB user account.

Your PECB Certificate reflects the name of your PECB account. If you would like to update the name of your PECB account, please contact us at information.security@pecb.com or drop a service ticket.

Yes, professionals with PECB certification may indicate their certification(s) on their personal business cards.

No. There are no additional maintenance requirements for the business card. However, you are required to maintain your certificate.

For each Master Credential, the respective Foundation Courses are listed. For more details, please see Appendix 2 in the brochure for New Credentials.

PECB holds a no-refund policy on services purchased: Certification of Persons. If such a purchase was done by accident due to not carefully following instructions sent by PECB on applying a Coupon Code and/or by over fulfilling the amount required, we recommend you to contact PECB at customer@pecb.com no later than 30 Days after the payment was done, so we can use it as a credit note for your future payments (maintenance fees, additional certificates, etc.).

PECB Certificates are valid for three years. To maintain a certificate active, candidates are required to submit CPD and pay the AMF.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a portfolio structure for demonstrating, documenting, and tracking the skills, knowledge, and experience acquired by professionals beyond their initial certification date.

CPD’s are important for updating professional experience, acknowledging achievements, and demonstrating professional activities conducted. Depending on the certification scheme, these activities include education, work experience, auditor training, audit experience, implementation, and/or consulting experience.

Other activities related to the certification include training, seminars, conferences, publications, presentations, coaching, private studies, articles, magazines, books, etc.

Annual Maintenance Fees (AMF) are required to maintain a PECB Certificate and enable PECB to improve its services and schemes.

Note: CPD and AMF are not required for Foundation, Provisional, and Transition Credentials. Once a candidate decides to upgrade for a higher credential (Lead), the maintenance requirement will be applied.

For more information, please read the Certification Maintenance Policy.

Please note that PECB Certificate need to be maintained on annual basis. Therefore, you will need to maintain each of the certificates you possess.

A PECB Certificate requires the payment of the maintenance fee. The annual reporting begins with the initial certification date.

PECB continuously notifies each PECB Professional to maintain their certificate(s). The notifications are sent several times throughout the certification cycle. The first one is sent three months before the annual certificate issuance date. The annual maintenance fee can be paid online through your dashboard, by logging here (www.pecb.com/login), clicking My Certifications, and then the Submit AMF button.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a portfolio structure for demonstrating, documenting, and tracking the skills, knowledge, and experience acquired by professionals beyond their initial certification date.

In order to support members earn their CPD credits, PECB continually organizes webinar sessions containing CPD credits, opportunities for writing articles, and chances for participating in training and events.

Kindly find an overview of the number of CPDs issued for attending a:

• Live webinar                                                                    1 CPD
• 2day Reseller/Trainer live webinar                            6 CPD
• Introduction course:                                                      7 CPD
• Foundation course:                                                        14 CPD
• 3day Manager course:                                                   21 CPD
• Lead Auditor/Manager/Implementer course          31 CPD

If you are interested to obtain the CPD with PECB, please drop a service ticket here.

PECB Certified Professionals will need to provide PECB with the required hours of auditing and/or implementation-related tasks they have performed.

CPD’s can be submitted at any time. To do so, you need to login to your dashboard here (www.pecb.com/login), click on My Certifications>CPD Info>Submit CPD.

Three months before the annual issuance date of your certificate, you will receive a notification confirming that the option to ‘Submit AMF’ is available and displayed in your dashboard. You will need to login to your account, go to ‘My Certifications’ and click on the ‘Submit AMF’ link located next to your Certificate.

Master credential is the highest credential within the PECB Certification structure.

The requirements for this certification are:

• PECB Certified Lead Auditor + Lead Implementer exams or equivalent
• 4 additional Foundation Exams related to the specific industry
• 15 years of experience, 10 of which related to the specific industry
• 700 hours of experience in auditing + 700 hours of experience in projects related to the specific industry
• Signing the PECB code of ethics

You can find more detailed information by clicking on the following link: https://pecb.com/pdf/brochures/introducing-new-pecb-certification-schemes.pdf

Please note that your Master credential cannot be downgraded to a lower credential. If you do not fulfill the new requirements for this credential, your Master Certificate will be revoked.

Passing four Foundation exams for the Master Credential proves that you are able to master different concepts related to the respective certification fields.

No. Equivalencies are not applied for these specific Foundation credentials since they serve for advancing the knowledge and skills of the potential Master candidates.

Passing the Foundation exams will suffice for achieving the Master Credentials. However, if you want to have the Foundation Certificate, you are eligible to apply for them.

No. Your Master Credential will be valid until the expiration date. To renew the Master certificate you only need to submit the CPD and AMF. The foundation exams are required only for initial applications.

Yes. To be eligible to apply for the Master Credential, one of the main requirements is to pass the respective ISO Lead Auditor and Lead Implementer exams.

Each PECB credential requires demonstrating relevant work experience and knowledge related to the certification field. Furthermore, each application is reviewed separately and requires to be validated based on the updated information provided.

Yes. As a PECB Master in Risk Management, you are eligible to teach the mentioned credentials. However, in order to be eligible to teach a PECB course, you need to become PECB Certified Trainer. For more details on how to become a trainer, please check our website.

The reason why the ISO/IEC 27001 Master credential requires 15/10 years of experience is because it has a longer history of practice in the market.

PECB Master Professional will receive additional benefits, which will be communicated to them individually.

Upgrade

PECB Professionals can apply for a higher credential once they can provide evidence that proves that they fulfill the requirements of the higher credential.

The PECB Certificates can be upgraded online through your dashboard, by logging here (www.pecb.com/login), clicking My Certifications, and then the Upgrade button.

The application fee for an upgrade is $100.

Downgrade

A PECB Certificate can be downgraded to a lower credential due to the following reasons:

• AMF has not been paid.
• CPD hours have not been submitted.
• Insufficient CPD hours have been submitted.
• Evidence on CPD hours has not been submitted upon request.
• The PECB Code of Ethics has been violated.

Please login to your member account, go to “My Certifications” and click on “Upgrade” link located next to your certificate. All you need to do is to fill the required information. The upgrade fee to one of the Senior Credentials is $100.

Please note that upgrades cannot be done manually. In order to upgrade to a higher credential, members are required to demonstrate their relevant experience that qualifies you for a higher credential.

Yes. The upgrade fee is $100

No. There is no need to upgrade to a Senior Lead Credential in order to apply for the Master. If you fulfill the requirements for the Master, you can directly apply for this credential. For more details regarding the certification requirements, please check our brochure.

No. There is no need to upgrade to a Senior Lead Risk Manager Credential in order to apply for the Master. If you fulfill the requirements for the Master, you can directly apply for this Credential. For more details regarding the certification requirements, please check our brochure.

Yes. In case that you are unable to demonstrate at least 180 hours for your Senior Lead Auditor credential on tri-annual basis, you certificate will be downgraded to the credential for which you have fulfilled the maintenance requirements.

Yes, PECB offers different certifications levels. In case you do not meet the required experience for a Lead Certificate, you can check the requirements for an Auditor/Implementer/Manager level certificate.
If you have limited work experience in the certification field, you can apply for our entry certificate: Provisional – Auditor/Implementer/Manager to prove that you master the fundamental aspects and further improve your experience.

Please find more information on Certification Requirements.

Yes. If you fulfill the respective certification requirements for the Senior Lead credential, you can directly submit an upgrade. Upgrading from a Provisional Credential to a Senior Lead Credential will cost you $100. For more details regarding the certification requirements, please check our brochure.

As there are fees for scheduling an online PECB exam and submitting a PECB certificate application, Partners will provide course participants with coupon codes through their PECB Partners Dashboard.

PECB course participants are provided with coupon codes, which depending on the event exam type, can be used for:

If the event exam type is paper-based, the coupon code is valid for:

• Applying for the Certification if the exam is passed successfully;

If the event exam type is online, the coupon code is valid for:

• Scheduling one first take online exam session;
• Schedule one retake online exam session (if you have failed the first attempt);
• Waive the Certificate application fee;

Participants will be provided with the coupon code via email from the PECB system, and in case the email is lost or not successfully delivered, the coupon code can also be found within the My Courses tab under the Coupon Code column.

The coupon code is bound to a specific PECB account and to a specific course. The coupon code cannot be used by another PECB account, nor for another PECB course.