Spotlight on members' professional development: Becoming a Certified Professional Organizer, CPO®
APDO's President Katherine Blackler (SortMySpace Ltd) recently became the UK's first Certified Professional Organizer (CPO®). We caught up with her to find out what the qualification means and what was involved.What is a CPO®?
The CPO® is a mark of differentiation for professionals working in our field. It is issued by the Board of Certified Professional Organizers (BCPO®). There are now 368 CPOs® across the globe but there are only two in Europe at present. It's great that we have another APDO member, Vincy Tam (Jupp UK) flying the CPO® flag in Hong Kong too. Once qualified, you can use the CPO® designation after your name and display the CPO® badge on your website, email and marketing materials. I have a lot of respect for the CPOs® I met at two NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals) conferences I've attended and the ICD (Institute of Challenging Disorganization) conference recently. My 2016 NAPO conference buddy Andrea Walker CPO®, Smartly Organized NJ, USA encouraged me earlier this year to take the exam. Because I admire the way she and the other CPOs® I know, approach their profession, I decided to take the plunge myself. I feel it shows an extra level of commitment to your career choice. Colleagues and clients know you're taking it seriously and that you're continually striving to improve your skills and knowledge to help them. I hope I can inspire other UK organisers to consider it too, even if that's as a future goal.What do you need to be a CPO®?
You need to demonstrate an active career by chalking up 1500 hours working with organising clients over the past 5 years OR show that you have worked at least 1250 hours with clients and then you can add up to 250 substitute hours at the point of applying to take the examination. Aside from accruing the client-facing and/or substitute hours, there's also a 2-hour 125-question multiple choice exam to sit at one of their global testing centres. In the UK they're available in London and Newcastle. You can apply to sit the exam in February, June and October each year. You need to pull together a detailed spreadsheet which captures all your client hours and/or the different types of substitute hours. NAPO runs a preparatory webinar (4 hours over 2 sessions) which I found useful and participation in that has been proven to increase the chances of passing the exam itself. There is also a reading list of approximately 40 books, although the BCPO® does stress that you are not expected to read every book from cover-to-cover but to pick any which cover the areas you're not familiar with.What sort of substitute hours could I include?
You can provide up to 250 hours-worth of such things as CPD credits (Continuing Professional Development). This includes classes (physical or virtual) which relate to the organising industry and can demonstrate a skill or learning that would benefit your clients rather than simply benefiting your own business (such as marketing or social media training). You also need to have a certificate of attendance or completion for each course for them to be treated as CPD. If you serve on an organising association's board you can include 10 credits so I could include my volunteer role of APDO President. Publications, articles and blogs of at least 500 words that you've written are worth 10 credits each (with a maximum of 3 in this category). Mentoring or training hours can be included too and higher education study can count for up to 100 hours of credit. Whatever you include, be prepared to provide evidence of all the substitute hours you are logging as BCPO® conducts audits on a small percentage of applicants.What do you think the benefits of being a CPO® are?
I definitely learned more about my craft by studying for the CPO®. It's also enhanced my natural curiosity to develop skills and knowledge that could help me personally, better support my clients and also boost my business. As with many CPOs® I've been able to increase my hourly rate so there's a practical benefit to taking it too. I do feel it helps you to stand out in an ever-growing market.