Per the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) guidance, credentials may only be awarded (or “conferred”) after a candidate’s knowledge and/or skills are evaluated and determined to be acceptable.  To be recommended for conferral, candidates must, unless waived, meet the exam’s eligibility requirements and meet or exceed the exam’s qualifying score (i.e., cut-score).  While meeting the exam’s eligibility requirements and passing criteria should be taken as a promising sign of future certification conferral, the USD(I&S) must approve the conferral recommendation.

At the end of every month, the names of candidates who successfully meet the exam eligibility requirements and passing criteria will be submitted to the USD(I&S) for adjudication and conferral approval.  After conferral recommendations are approved, the Intelligence Fundamentals Professional Certification (IFPC) Program Management Office (PMO) will notify the new certificants and their employers of the achievement.  (The term “certificant” is used to identify individuals who have achieved certification conferral.)  It may take up to six (6) weeks after testing for a candidate to receive notification of conferral.        

Proof of conferral is provided to those who qualify via two (2) methods.  A printable certificate is posted to each successful candidate's profile within the candidate management system on ifpc-gsx.learningbuilder.com.  This can be accessed following conferral and printed at will.

Additionally, a digital badge is issued by USD(I&S) through a partner, BadgeCert.  Digital badges are tokens that may appear as icons or logos on a web page or other online venue signifying accomplishments, such as conferral of a certification or mastery of a skill.  The IFPC PMO will notify certificants of certification conferral via an email sent from no-reply@badgecert.com; the email will provide information on how certificants' may access and use their personal digital badge.  The digital badge will expire at the end of a certificant's conferral period unless it is renewed (click here for information on certification maintenance/recertification).  Upon expiration, the digital badge will no longer appear as active on the web page where it is stored.  See below for examples of an active and inactive digital badge.

It is important to note that the digital badge is currently available only on unclassified systems.

The IFPC PMO will maintain a registry of all conferred certificants and a record of certificants’ digital badges with attendant metadata. This metadata includes the certificate issuer’s name (i.e., USD(I&S)), the certificant’s name, and a short description of the badge.  It will also specify other details, such as the issue date and the expiration date.  The IFPC PMO will use the conferral registry to respond to requests for confirmation of an individual’s conferral status.  An individual’s conferral status (i.e., conferred or not conferred) will be the only information provided to interested parties request, an individual’s score will not be provided.