Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. A professional certification, trade certification, or professional designation (often called simply certification or qualification) is a designation earned by a person to assure that he/she is qualified to perform a job or task. Certifications, generally, need to be renewed periodically, or may be valid for a specific period of time. As a part of a complete renewal of an individual''s certification, it is common for the individual to show evidence of continual learning often termed continuing education or earning continuing education units (CEU).