For an established valuer with a long career, certification may seem less important than experience, reputation and a record of sound professional judgement. Those qualities remain central to good valuation practice. Yet the environment in which valuations are commissioned and relied upon is changing.
Research by the Education and Employment Research Center at Rutgers University considers the role of industry certifications in communicating skills and competence. One implication of this work is that certification serves a different purpose from experience. Experience develops capability, while certification provides a recognised way for others to understand and verify it.
That distinction matters when valuations are used for taxation, insurance, litigation, deceased estates, family law, financial reporting or regulatory purposes. The person commissioning the work may know the valuer well, but others relying on the report often do not.
Rutgers University’s Education and Employment Research Center examines how industry certifications communicate occupational competence and create value for workers, employers and industries. Its research highlights an important distinction: experience develops capability, while credible certification helps others recognise and verify it. As hiring, procurement and risk decisions become more evidence-based, certification provides a common reference point for judging skills, standards and continuing professional competence over time.
Insurers, solicitors, accountants and government agencies are also paying closer attention to professional standards, documented competence, continuing professional development and accountability. Their focus extends beyond whether a practitioner has worked in the field for many years. They may also want to know whether the valuer’s methods and reports reflect current expectations.
This change can be easy to miss. Established valuers often work through trusted professional relationships and repeat referrals. Within those networks, their reputation is already understood. Meanwhile, expectations have been evolving within legal practices, insurance arrangements, procurement systems and government administration, often beyond the valuer’s direct view.
The respected AVAA Certified Valuer (CVAu) credential recognises valuers who meet AVAA’s requirements for experience, professional indemnity insurance and valuation reporting. Credential holders also undertake continuing professional development and work within AVAA’s professional and ethical standards. For established practitioners, CVAu provides a recognised way to communicate professional standing beyond existing referral networks, particularly when reports are considered by clients, lawyers, insurers, accountants or government agencies and courts.
The CVAu credential provides one way of translating established professional experience into a form that can be readily understood outside those existing networks. It indicates that the practitioner has met defined experience requirements, carries appropriate professional indemnity insurance, undertakes continuing professional development and can produce reports consistent with the nationally recognised AVAA Professional Standards.
None of this diminishes the importance of experience. A credential cannot reproduce the judgement developed through years of inspecting assets, researching markets and defending conclusions. It can, however, place that experience within a contemporary professional framework. This becomes especially relevant when a valuation is later scrutinised by someone who did not appoint the valuer. A lawyer, insurer, regulator or government official may have limited knowledge of the practitioner’s history. A recognised credential and published standards give that person an additional basis for assessing the report and the practitioner behind it.
For long-established valuers, the issue is therefore less about proving their worth and more about ensuring that their professional standing remains visible in the language now used by clients and institutions to assess risk and competence. It’s here that the respected AVAA Certified Valuer (CVAu) becomes the benchmark for established professionals.
Reputation will continue to matter. Increasingly, however, reputation is being considered alongside certification, professional standards and evidence of continuing competence. Experienced valuers may find it worthwhile to consider whether their present credentials communicate the full extent of the professional standing they have already earned.
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Interested In Finding Out More?
If you’d like more information on the AVAA Certified Valuer (CVAu), send an email to certification@avaa.com.au or telephone 1300 928 165. You can also stay up to date by following AVAA on LinkedIn, X/Twitter and Facebook.
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