In California I don't believe that GIS or Geomatics are fields where the state offers professional licensing, i.e., people in these fields are not 'Design Professionals' like civil engineers, architects, or land surveyors.?ÿ?ÿ
Does anyone know of a state where this is different??ÿ By the way, I am aware that a GIS practitioner is able to obtain various internal certifications and qualifications.
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GIS is not a license in any state that i know of, the GISP is a professional certification, and not required to obtain nor qualify for liability insurance of the like, not offer an professionally based opinion as a licensed practitioner.
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I'm somewhat bothered by the GISP certificate.?ÿ It's expensive, $100 Application fee, $30 Practice Exam fee, $100 Portfolio Review fee, $250 Exam fee?ÿ ($480 total) and a $95 Annual Renewal fee.?ÿ 60%?ÿ of applicants pass the exam the first time.?ÿ The 4 year experience requirement is self reported with a note from your boss.?ÿ The qualifications process is a complicated points system, with points awarded for education, work experience, convention, workshop and seminar attendance, publications, awards received, presentations, workshop instructor, management, volunteering.?ÿ The criteria that qualifies your Portfolio submittals is unclear, but it appears that any good looking work product examples suffice.?ÿ They had a grandfathering option that ended in 2008.
I've known around a dozen GISPs, mostly through my relationship with ESRI.?ÿ Most are competent, but a few are holier-than-thou types who can produce pretty exhibits but if you look behind the curtain at their geodatabase designs & integrity, coordinate systems, etc.,?ÿ there's an alarming lack of even basic skills.?ÿ I pointed out one such person's broken work product to our common boss and he said "Yah, I know.?ÿ But nothing can be done about it because Headquarters mandates we have?ÿ one GIS staff aboard for marketing purposes."?ÿ OTOH I worked with what I thought was an IT expert who developed a neato real time cellphone geodatabase app for our project control stations.?ÿ Much later I learned he was a GISP and when I asked him if there was any benefit he replied "Oh yes, $200 a month?ÿ more in salary but I don't toot my horn about it given I'm surrounded by licensed LSs and engineers."
I've tried to be unbiased in this reply but have a nagging feeling feeling the GISP cert is more show than go in some instances, and possibly somebody is making a ton of money; the roster shows worldwide there's 10,000 GISPs, that's?ÿ about 5 million bucks in certification fees and?ÿ about 1 million bucks a year in Renewal fees.?ÿ It's actually much less than that in Renewal fees because a cursory scan of the roster reveals about 40% of GISPs have let their certificates expire.
Pages 2 and 12 of NC law address this. I haven't followed the progression for several years, but I think the current version is much watered down from the original law. As I recall, and please correct me, the original intent was to require GIS people to be licensed as surveyors. There was a special path to licensure for these folks and they pursued it en masse. Then their professional credentials after their signatures became GISP, PLS. I can't comment beyond that, but hopefully one of my fellow Tar Heels will add to or subtract from this brief narrative.
Here's the link to the 2019 version of the law. No guarantee as to current applicability.
https://www.ncbels.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Chapter_89C-thru-2017-Session-Law.pdf
I'm a licensed engineer (civil) and have my GISP, so I feel I'm qualified to discuss this topic.?ÿ I believe the GISP is a well-intentioned certification, but it certainly is not the same as licensure.?ÿ It's no different than any other certification initials, like PMP.?ÿ Need "experience" and have to pass an exam.?ÿ The problem with GIS as a profession is that it's so broad.?ÿ It needs some type of sub-certification to really be valuable.?ÿ You could spend your entire career performing GIS spatial analysis and not know the first thing about geomatics, and vice-versa.?ÿ It's no different than saying all civil engineers should be able to design skyscrapers as well as sewer treatment systems.?ÿ You can probably pass the GISP exam and know little to nothing about geomatics.?ÿ IT can be a huge part of GIS if you're doing enterprise systems and databases.?ÿ But that is not a skill most GISP's have.?ÿ If you need a GIS analyst with a general, broad set of skills, looking for a GISP is not a bad idea.?ÿ But you certainly shouldn't assume they know everything there is to know in the field.?ÿ You'll need to dig further into their resume and experience.