In short: A course certificate proves you attended. A certification is only worth having if it proves how you perform: you did the job under realistic conditions, a person scored you against a published standard, the result places you at a level rather than giving you a pass, and an employer can check it without taking your word for it. In my experience those are rare, and when you find one it’s worth most at the points where your CV can’t say what you can do, such as changing sector, coming back after a break, or going for a senior seat without the senior title.
I’ve been recruiting executive assistants for over a decade, and in my experience the qualifications section of a CV gets a glance at most. The hiring manager sees a diploma or a course they may not have heard of and moves on to the last two jobs. I’m rarely asked about a candidate’s certificates, but I’m asked all the time whether a candidate can actually do the job. If you’re thinking about paying for a certification, those two things are worth holding in mind, and most of the advice online ignores both of them.
What employers actually check
Three things tend to decide whether an EA gets the offer: the interview, the references, and whatever evidence of the work itself the employer can get hold of. The first two are weaker than people think. Interviews reward people who describe the job well, which isn’t the same as doing it well, and references come from people the candidate chose. The third is where the decision really gets made, and it’s also the thing a CV can’t give you, because a CV is a list of claims.
So the question to ask of any certification isn’t “will this look good” but “does this give an employer that third thing”. If it does, it changes decisions, and if it doesn’t, it’s a line in a section nobody reads.
Attendance versus evidence
Many EA qualifications in the UK are, in effect, attendance certificates. You paid, you turned up, you may have passed a short test on what was taught, and you got a certificate with the provider’s name on it. Some of those courses are excellent and well worth doing for what they teach, and being taught something is a perfectly good reason to take one. It just isn’t evidence that you can do the thing under pressure, with an executive who can’t be reached and an inbox going wrong, and employers aren’t naive about the difference.
A certification worth the name is a different kind of thing. It’s an assessment, not a course. You do the job, or something very close to it, and someone scores how you did. The certificate then carries information an employer can’t get from your CV, which is the only reason to put one on it.
Five questions to ask before you pay for one
If the answer to any of these is no, you’re buying a course, and you should judge it as a course.
1. Did I have to do the job, or answer questions about it?
Multiple choice tests measure whether you know what a good EA would do, whereas the job measures whether you do it when it’s 8:45, the diary has moved twice and two people are standing at your desk. A certification that’s worth anything puts you in that position and watches.
2. Is the standard published?
If you can’t read the rubric you’re being scored against, neither can an employer, which means the certificate tells them nothing except that someone, somewhere, approved of you. A published standard is what makes the result mean the same thing to everyone who reads it.
3. Did a person score it?
Automated marking is fine for spelling. It can’t judge whether you drew the line in the right place between what you handled yourself and what you took to the executive, because that depends on reading the situation, and reading the situation is the job. Someone who has done the work at a senior level needs to have read yours.
4. Does it give me a level, or a pass?
A pass tells an employer you cleared a bar whose height they don’t know. A level tells them the job you demonstrated. The Core Standard, for example, places you at Operational EA, EA to Senior Leadership or Executive Business Partner, and each of those describes a different amount of judgement an employer is trusting you with. That’s useful in a salary conversation in a way a pass isn’t.
5. Can an employer verify it without asking me?
Anyone can put a line on a CV. A certification an employer can check directly, by reference number, against a record held by the body that issued it, is one they’ll believe. The Core Standard verifier works this way: the certificate carries a reference and a link, and the employer sees the level, the result and the reviewer without taking anyone’s word for it.
When it’s worth it
Even a certification that passes all five is worth more at some points in a career than at others. In my experience it earns its keep in four situations.
You’re changing sector. The EA to a law firm partner who wants to move into a founder’s office has the skills and none of the vocabulary, so the CV reads as a different job. Evidence that they handled a realistic day in the new setting, at the level the new seat needs, says what the CV can’t.
You’re coming back after a break. After maternity leave, a career break or a stretch of temping, the CV has a gap and the last reference is a few years old. A current, dated result from an independent standard answers the question the employer is too polite to ask.
You’re going for the senior seat without the senior title. I see this a lot. The EA has been working as an Executive Business Partner under the title Executive Assistant, and every application goes through someone matching titles. A certified level is a way of saying what the title doesn’t.
You’re negotiating pay. A pay conversation built on “I think I’m worth more” is a negotiation. One built on an independent result that places you at a level above your seat is a correction, and in my experience the second goes better.
When it isn’t the best use of the money
If you’re early in your career and the gap in your CV is experience, the better investment is usually the job itself, or a course that teaches the specific thing you’re missing. A certification shows what you can already do, so it’s most valuable once there’s something to show. If you’re happy where you are and not looking, it’s a benchmark rather than a lever, which is worth having for the feedback but isn’t urgent.
Nor is a certification a substitute for the interview or the reference. It’s the third leg, the evidence of the work, and it’s strongest sitting alongside the other two rather than in place of them.
Once you’ve got one
Put the level and the reference on your CV, in the headline rather than the qualifications section, because that’s where it’ll be read, and add the badge to LinkedIn. Take the one-page summary to interviews and use it to talk about specific moments: the reporter you didn’t confirm anything to, the email you wrote in the executive’s voice. The guide to using your Recruiter Summary covers where it belongs and where it doesn’t. If the level is lower than you hoped, the report will tell you exactly which answers decided it, and you can sit again once you’ve worked on them, with the strongest result standing.
Sit the standard rather than a course
TCS Certified is one continuous sitting of a realistic executive working day, scored against every level of The Core Standard and reviewed by a specialist. You receive a Full Report, a Development Plan, a one-page Recruiter Summary, a certificate and a share badge, and your result is verifiable by any employer. £175 inc. VAT.
Start TCS Certified →Common questions
Do employers care about executive assistant certifications?
Employers care about evidence that you can do the job. Most certifications don’t give them that, because they certify attendance on a course, so they tend to be skimmed and forgotten. A certification that shows how you performed under realistic conditions, against a published standard, and that the employer can verify, is a different thing and does get read.
What is the best executive assistant qualification in the UK?
It depends what you need. If you need to learn a specific skill, a good course that teaches it. If you need to prove the level you work at, an assessment that places you at a level on a published standard, scored by a person and verifiable by an employer. They do different jobs and aren’t interchangeable.
How long does TCS Certified take?
It’s one continuous sitting, and most candidates take between 50 and 90 minutes. There’s no level to choose, because you sit one assessment and your work is scored against every level, so your result is the level you demonstrated.
What if I get a lower level than I expected?
The report names the specific answers that decided the result, and the Development Plan sets out what would move you up. You’re welcome to sit again once you’ve worked on them, and the strongest result stands.
Lily Shippen
Founder, The Core Standard
Lily has been recruiting Executive Assistants and PAs at the highest level for over a decade, having founded Lily Shippen Recruitment at 22. She built The Core Standard to give employers evidence of how a candidate actually works. Connect on LinkedIn.