How Certifications Work
A plain-English overview of how Salt House Pro helps real-world training become visible, verified, and portable.
In plain English
A certification is a set of real-world skills you want someone to be able to do, with a clear definition of what “verified” means.
- Pick a program (a certification offered by a provider or assigned by an employer).
- Complete skills in the real world with verified sign-offs.
- Keep the record so progress and proof travel with the person.
Why the structure matters
- Businesses get calmer onboarding and visibility into coverage and gaps.
- Individuals keep proof of competency and avoid re-proving skills everywhere they go.
- Providers can scale delivery and trust without building custom tracking software.
Details (for providers and ops)
A certification is the logical program (e.g., “Emergency Care Level 1”). A version is a specific snapshot of that program—its skills, requirements, and policies. You publish versions over time so expectations stay clear and historical progress stays valid.
When someone enrolls, they enroll in a specific version. All progress and sign-offs are recorded against that version. If a new version is released, existing enrollments remain on the original version unless they’re intentionally migrated—so the goalposts don’t move midstream.
Each certification version is made of skills. Skills can be required or optional, and they can map to standardized skills (shared definitions). Skills may have completion requirements (e.g., one sign-off, a quiz, or both).
When a certification skill maps to a standardized skill, completions can count toward equivalency across certifications. That means one verified completion can satisfy the same skill in multiple programs where providers map to the same standard.
Sign-offs are recorded when an authorized signer attests that a learner has completed a skill. Policies define who can sign (e.g., internal roles, designated external signers). Sign-offs are auditable and tied to the enrollment and version.
Where policy allows, sign-offs or completions can be revoked. Revocation is recorded and visible in history so that competency records remain accurate and trustworthy.
Old versions can be archived. They remain visible for historical enrollments and reporting but aren’t offered for new enrollments. This keeps catalogs clean while preserving audit trails.
Enrollments and certifications move through defined states (e.g., active, completed, withdrawn, archived). Keeping transitions explicit helps licensing, billing, and visibility stay consistent.
Licensing & funding models explains how access and payment work. Standardized skills explained goes deeper on canonical skills and equivalency. See the certification directory and certification providers pages for how programs are published and discovered.