Is a Certification in Mechanical Engineering Worth It?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Cer­ti­fi­ca­tions can be cru­cial for mechan­i­cal engi­neers look­ing to spe­cial­ize and advance in spe­cif­ic areas with­in the field.
• Cer­ti­fi­ca­tions often serve as a recog­ni­tion of spe­cial­ized knowl­edge and skills, which can enhance an engineer’s cre­den­tials and marketability.
• Cer­tain mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing roles, espe­cial­ly those in spe­cial­ized fields like HVAC or aero­space, may require spe­cif­ic cer­ti­fi­ca­tions.

A bach­e­lor’s in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing can lead to a lot of employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties, but for pro­fes­sion­als who want to spe­cial­ize in a very focused way, a cer­ti­fi­ca­tion may be the best choice. Read on for details about the best cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in mechan­i­cal engineering.

What Makes a Certification in Mechanical Engineering Worth Pursuing?

Some cer­tifi­cates for mechan­i­cal engi­neers can become crit­i­cal to the career and suc­cess of some­one. Some oth­er cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for mechan­i­cal engi­neers can increase the engineer’s skills and knowl­edge, which can help them make career changes or moves with­in their respec­tive organizations.

Con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion also shows employ­ers and oth­ers that some­one will remain cur­rent and knowl­edge­able in their cho­sen field. In this way, cer­tifi­cates look very good on a resume and offer skills that some­one can bring to the table when they’re inter­view­ing, try­ing to advance, or show­ing their exper­tise in oth­er ways.

Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cours­es for mechan­i­cal engi­neers can also become nec­es­sary to show pro­fi­cien­cy with a par­tic­u­lar tool, piece of soft­ware, or ide­ol­o­gy for a spe­cif­ic job. For exam­ple, an appli­cant may need to show they have some sort of cer­tifi­cate in using a type of CAD or CAM soft­ware before they can work for a manufacturer.

How­ev­er, since there real­ly are a lot of cer­tifi­cates for mechan­i­cal engi­neers out there, it’s a good idea to have a basic under­stand­ing of which cer­tifi­cates are worth pur­su­ing and which aren’t. ASME, a stan­dard-set­ter in the field, cer­tain­ly thinks cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for mechan­i­cal engi­neers are worth pur­su­ing.

When Is a Certification in Mechanical Engineering Necessary?

In most cas­es, cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for mechan­i­cal engi­neers become nec­es­sary to pur­sue a career in any broad mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing niche. The dif­fer­ent fields of mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing require a dif­fer­ent lev­el of exper­tise in that field. A mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing degree only real­ly shows that some­one knows the core prin­ci­ples of mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing, and can like­ly apply them in a broad sense.

How­ev­er, a cer­tifi­cate for a par­tic­u­lar field shows the engi­neer has tak­en the time to learn how to apply those prin­ci­ples to a spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tion. For exam­ple, a mechan­i­cal engi­neer work­ing as a struc­tur­al ana­lyst in the HVAC field will prob­a­bly need an HVAC cer­tifi­cate. If that same engi­neer wants to work on vehi­cles, they will then need to become cer­ti­fied for that as well before any vehi­cle mak­er hires them.

These are all sub­dis­ci­plines and sub-sub­dis­ci­plines of the field. In a larg­er sense, there are top-lev­el cer­tifi­cates for mechan­i­cal engi­neers that have become indus­try stan­dards. These are the cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that aren’t always nec­es­sary, but might as well be for those who want to work as a mechan­i­cal engi­neer in any capacity.

Exam­ples of these types of cer­tifi­cates include:

• NACE cer­ti­fi­ca­tions
• NICET cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, such as the Tech­nol­o­gist Certification
• NCEES licen­sure through the FE Exam

Beyond these, just about any cer­tifi­cate cours­es for mechan­i­cal engi­neers offered by any of the larg­er, nation­al­ly rec­og­nized pro­fes­sion­al mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing asso­ci­a­tions is a cer­tifi­cate worth con­sid­er­ing. Any­thing spon­sored or cer­ti­fied with ASME cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for mechan­i­cal engi­neers will stand at the top of the list.

You may have years of expe­ri­ence, but new job oppor­tu­ni­ties may require new edu­ca­tion require­ments. Work expe­ri­ence, intern­ships, and more can help engi­neer­ing stu­dents become a pro­fes­sion­al engineer.

What are the Different Mechanical Engineering Certifications?

There are as many types of pro­fes­sion­al cer­tifi­cate pro­grams for mechan­i­cal engi­neers as there are fields, nich­es, and ver­ti­cals with­in this over­ar­ch­ing engi­neer­ing branch. And even for the engi­neer­ing cer­tifi­cates and cer­tifi­cate cours­es for mechan­i­cal engi­neers, appli­cants will find the sit­u­a­tion splin­ters even further.

For exam­ple, an aero­space engi­neer­ing cer­tifi­cate can also mean some­one will need cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in a very spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tion of aero­space engi­neer­ing. Then, that per­son may need cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in using the tools nec­es­sary for that spe­cif­ic appli­ca­tion. This can become a rab­bit hole for an appli­cant who isn’t sure about their goals.

That’s why it’s a good idea for appli­cants to know pre­cise­ly what they want to do, then they can choose the best cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for mechan­i­cal engi­neers that apply specif­i­cal­ly to them. Some exam­ples of the dif­fer­ent cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cours­es for mechan­i­cal engi­neers include:

• Assis­tive design certificate
• Dig­i­tal man­u­fac­tur­ing certificates
• EPA Oper­a­tors Safe­ty Certification
• Cer­ti­fied Ener­gy Manger (CEM)
• Cer­ti­fied Sys­tems Engi­neer­ing Pro­fes­sion­al (CSEP)

With so many types of real-world mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing jobs, there are dozens and dozens of pro­fes­sion­al mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tions out there. Your career path may go toward:

• robot­ics
• mechan­i­cal design
• mechan­i­cal systems
• con­trol systems
• automa­tion
• project man­age­ment
• qual­i­ty control
• man­u­fac­tur­ing processes
• engi­neer­ing management

Poten­tial employ­ers will appre­ci­ate the val­i­da­tion of a degree, cer­tifi­cate, or engi­neer­ing license. These prove the com­pe­ten­cy you need to take on entry-lev­el engi­neer­ing work. It shows you have the fun­da­men­tals to become a cer­ti­fied ener­gy man­ag­er or a man­u­fac­tur­ing engineer.

Can I Get a Mechanical Engineering Certificate Online?

Cer­tifi­cate cours­es for mechan­i­cal engi­neers exist online, and appli­cants should cer­tain­ly pur­sue online cer­tifi­cate cours­es for mechan­i­cal engi­neers when pos­si­ble. How­ev­er, appli­cants should show care with friv­o­lous online cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cours­es for mechan­i­cal engineers.

They must make sure the course and cer­tifi­cate come from a rep­utable and pro­fes­sion­al group. If the course has some type of accred­i­ta­tion, even better.

In addi­tion, free online cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cours­es for mechan­i­cal engi­neers exist as well. Some­times these cours­es will come from spe­cif­ic ven­dors or man­u­fac­tur­ers to help some­one become accli­mat­ed to one of their tools or soft­ware options.

The same rules apply with free online cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cours­es for mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing and relat­ed fields. Appli­cants must make sure the cours­es have worth to them and rep­re­sent a neces­si­ty to their goals.

Relat­ed Rankings:

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Mechan­i­cal Engineering

5 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Mechan­i­cal Engineering

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Mechan­i­cal Engineering

What Can I Do with a Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing Degree?