The Certified Professional Organizer (CPO) designation is an experience and exam-based certification for professionals who have met specific minimum standards, and proven through examination and client interaction that they possess the requisite body of knowledge and experience. Prior to sitting for the examination, a CPO candidate must be prepared to verify employment as a professional organizer preceding the exam date. The CPO designation indicates that an individual has the knowledge, experience and skills necessary to teach, transfer or demonstrate organizing skills to facilitate and support a client’s overall personal and/or business goals. The Board of Certification for Professional Organizers (BCPO) examination presumes that candidates possess and maintain the level of education and experience required for certification as outlined in the eligibility requirements section of the BCPO web site. Upon successful completion of the BCPO examination, CPOs retain the credential for three years, during which time a total of forty-five (45)

continuing education unit A continuing education unit (CEU) or continuing education credit (CEC) is a measure used in continuing education programs to assist the professional to maintain their license in their profession. Continuing education or professional development is ...

s (CEUs) must be obtained in order to renew the credential. CPOs adhere to a

code of ethics Ethical codes are adopted by organizations to assist members in understanding the difference between right and wrong and in applying that understanding to their decisions. An ethical code generally implies documents at three levels: codes of bus ...

that is enforceable through a stringent ethics complaint procedure. Recent

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...

series such as '' Hoarders'' and '' Hoarding: Buried Alive'', and related news stories have brought certified professional organizers into the public eye.

Mission statement

The BCPO onlin
mission statement
states

Development

In 2005, a

Job Analysis Job analysis (also known as work analysis) is a family of procedures to identify the content of a job in terms of the activities it involves in addition to the attributes or requirements necessary to perform those activities. Job ''analysis'' pro ...

survey was conducted under the supervision of Schroeder Measurement Technologies, Inc.
SMT
, to determine the important knowledge and skill elements required for entry-level practice as a professional organizer. A Subject Matter Expert (SME) Committee, representing a diversity of practice, experience, geographic regions, and education was appointed to provide content expertise, and charged with determining Job/

Task Analysis Task analysis is the analysis of how a task is accomplished, including a detailed description of both manual and mental activities, task and element durations, task frequency, task allocation, task complexity, environmental conditions, necessary cl ...

(JTA) of a professional organizer. From a comprehensive search of the relevant literature, SMT developed an exhaustive list of knowledge and skill elements required for competent practice, and presented it to the JTA Committee for review and approval. An online survey instrument was developed that combined a demographic questionnaire with measurements of the importance of each knowledge and skill element that had been identified. Statistical analysis of survey results from more than 3,000 professional organizers was used to differentiate important from unimportant elements of professional organizing practice. SMT then translated the JTA-approved list of knowledge and skill elements into an examination content outline. One committee was charged with identifying reference material to support the content outline, and another with writing legally defensible questions that could be associated with specific references. Finally a Program Definition Team (PDT) set eligibility criteria and related policies. The PDT determined that, based on characteristics of the professional organizing industry, the largest component of eligibility criteria would be interaction with clients.

Future plans

According to the BCPO web site, the organization's intention is that the CPO credential eventually be recognized by

ANSI The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...

or a similar authority.

References

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External links

Certified Professional Organizers

National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals
Professional titles and certifications