Are SPēD certificates worth anything? What about their ACE-approved classes?

[OfficerA]

First off, some links:

Learn About SPD Certification (certificates)

and

ACE CREDIT | The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training (ACE-approved courses)

I recently moved into a new position that requires me to verify security clearances. While I initially had to mess with this site to access something for my job, during the sign-up process I found other resources that the site offered, including certification and ACE-approved courses.

Are any of these worth it (both for the USAF and civilian world), or is this mostly resume padding?

[Leherself]

(I know this is an old thread, but in case other people search for the same stuff...)

Resume padding, for the most part. It'll probably be useful in the future if you want to stay in the federal government security realm. More positions are starting to require a SPeD cert - earned within the first 12 months, if the applicant doesn't have it already - but it's not really a standardized thing quite yet. That said, if you already have one then you're ahead of the curve which will probably look favorable on an application (I would prioritize SPeD *after* degree completion, though).

Most of the undergrad ACE approved courses are painfully time consuming, and there probably aren't enough of them to really create any kind of degree program unless you attend a bunch of residence courses - which most offices that I know of don't have the budget for right now. CLEP/DSST are quicker and easier if you're just trying to accumulate undergrad credit.

What's more interesting are the online courses they offer for ACE approved *graduate* credit. Completely free for those people who are eligible to take them - no having to worry about tuition assistance or GI Bill stuff, and nothing out of pocket except the occasional book. The downside is that they don't (yet) offer a complete degree program, just certificate programs that combine a few of their ACE approved courses, and transferring credit at the graduate level is pretty limited and can be tricky. The upside is that you can probably complete them at work, if you're in the security field, since they count as professional development. My supervisor was much happier about me taking them than regular college classes, but ymmv.

The main thing is that the target audience for the courses is pretty small, and mostly consists of people (federal government employees and military) who already have plentiful access to free educational opportunities. Personally, since I've used up quite a bit of my GI Bill on my undergrad, and don't qualify for tuition assistance for grad school quite yet, I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to get some free graduate credit under my belt. I'm just not entirely sure how useful it'll actually be if I don't end up staying in the same career field in the long term.

[Leherself]

One slightly amusing thing - I just got my SPeD cert in the mail today and that thing is seriously impressive looking. I'm going to have to display it in a different place than my Associate's degree, because my degree just looks pathetic by comparison (it's twice as big and has infinitely more bling. Me and my coworkers were having a laugh about how someone at DSS must have extra money in their budget if they're printing such nice certs...).