In a world of online possibilities, there are so many things at your fingertips with an online connection. While this might seem fantastic at first glance, it does come with at least one downhill aspect, and that’s the fact that there are so many opportunities that less grand prospects are within reach as well. For proof, you only have to consider how many online degrees are available to virtual students. The odds that all of these programs are great learning abilities from respected schools are low, so you have to consider your options in detail to find ones that are going to prepare you for your chosen field.
This is true as well with certifications that are available online since the quality and prestige of each institution can vary from to another, so much that while you might get a solid certification from one, what you could earn from the other could prove nothing but a waste of money. Once more then, it could pay to do your research before handing over money for these opportunities.
Take for example, ExpertRating’s yoga certification program. Is it a good opportunity, or is it just a way to waste some extra cash? Keep reading to get my take on it!
The Overview
The yoga certification program through ExpertRating is an online process to learn and develop your knowledge of yoga. For only $69.99, you can journey through courses that are yoga-specific, like Inverted Yoga Exercises, or more general, like Nutrition and Constituents of Food. Once you’ve neared the end of the program, you’ll have a multiple choice final exam waiting for you to complete the certification, and the website boasts that this program can be completed in less than a month.
Is It a Good Value?
Price-wise, you might have a hard time finding a cheaper yoga certification available, so just for the price, this could be a great value. Judging by the sample questions as well, that $69.99 will go toward learning the field in specificity, so if all you want from your certification is personal growth and knowledge, then this could be a great deal for you. One of the reasons why that personal detail matters though is that any online educational process, to some extent, can be what you make it to be. If you take an exam online, for instance, there’s no teacher standing over you to make sure you’re not turning it into an open-book exam, so you could easily look up all the answers for the exam rather than committing those ideas to memory. One person then could go through an online program and learn little to nothing because they looked up every answer, while another could gain a hefty amount of knowledge because they labored over the material.
Essentially, if you’re looking for personal growth, you might as well stop reading here since so long as the information that is given is solid, a cheaper bargain you’ll apply yourself to in order to learn is as good as an expensive one where you’ll learn the same things. The question, however, is how ExpertRating stacks up against its competitors, like NASM, ACSM, or ACE. For these details, keep reading!
Well, How Does It Stack Up Against the Competition?
In ways, it stacks up well, like with the price. There’s also the notion that all of this certification can be completed at home, which is hard to top, and the idea that some of the organizations that were listed as competitors might not actually offer yoga-centered certifications. They can prepare you to work in a gym or be a personal fitness coach, when that’s the case, but you might have a harder time finding a yoga-specific certification through them. For that, ExpertRating could have the advantage.
This could very well be, however, the end of the advantages where ExpertRating is concerned, at least on its own. If you earn a more general fitness certification from a more revered company and add this yoga certification as a bonus, the combination could prove strong. This way, you would have the solid backing of a more noted fitness instruction program, but also the not-so-notable yoga certification to show potential employers that you have yoga knowledge. The two combined could help you, but it’s not certain that just an ExpertRating certification would be acceptable for employment at most gyms and fitness facilities for reasons that will be covered in the next section.
What Are Its Faults?
According to Study.com (n.d.), in order to teach yoga, you have to be certified to do so, and there’s no seen indication on ExpertRating’s website that the yoga certification is a teaching certification. Believe it or not, this can be the difference between landing a job and sitting at home with a whole lot of yoga facts in your head! One of the most revered places to earn your teaching certification for yoga is Yoga Alliance, so if you’re planning to use your degree to teach others the practice, looking into that program might be a better option.
Another fault surfaces when you compare the ExpertRating format to what the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports in regard to fitness experts with certifications since the BSL says that “[a]ll certification exams have a written part, and some also have a practical part” (“Fitness Trainers and Instructors, 2017, “Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations” section). Since it was already established that the final exam for the ExpertRating certification is a multiple choice exam, this hints that it does not fall in line with what’s expected of certifications, which is another knock against the program’s credibility.
If you want ExpertRating-specific proof of this idea, note that under the tab for “Career Prospects” for this yoga certification program, ExpertRating does not mention at all that it will help you to become a personal assistant or a professional expert. Rather, the description only says the demand for such workers is expected to increase.
It’s also worth noting that the bragged-about detail for the program on ExpertRating’s site is that it’s “an ISO 9001:2015 certified company” (“Choose the ExpertRating Online Advanced Yoga Certification,” n.d., “About ExperRating” section). That sounds great, but what does it really mean to be “ISO 9001:2015 certified?” According to the ISO site, not much:
“All the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 are generic and are intended to be applicable to any organization, regardless of its type or size, or the products and services it provides” (“ISO 9001:2015,” 2015, para. 4).
When ExpertRating can only offer flimsy methods of showing their validity—like telling you that fitness work will increase, but never saying they can help, or bragging about a certification that is noted as “generic” by the company it comes from—it doesn’t feel like a sturdy option at all. Not only do these details do little to comment on the usefulness of the program, but they also provide additional deterring factors since what isn’t being said becomes clear. If the company won’t say that the certification will help you to get one of those fitness jobs, maybe they’re not confident it will, and if they had a better backing to brag about other than something “generic,” that backing would have been what they addressed. Overall, what felt like a great option starts showing hints of being too good to be true.
If you research student reviews, you’ll find a mix of good and bad—both sides adamant—so it seems there’s a place for an ExpertRating certification. Don’t expect, though, that this certification alone will be enough to have you teaching at a major yoga studio!
The Conclusion?
ExpertRating is a convenient, reasonably-priced opportunity to better educate yourself on yoga for personal matters, and it could combine well with a more general certification from a more solid organization to help you build a career that could include yoga. Since the company itself neglects to say that this program will prepare you for a career in fitness or as a yoga teacher specifically, this should at best be treated like the icing on the cake of your fitness resume if you want to work for larger companies. This cannot be overstated in this review. If you want to work for a bigger organization, definitely have some other credential on your side besides ExpertRating.
Regardless, this remains a good deal for the price, so long as you keep its disadvantages in mind and seek additional certifications if your career calls for it.
References
About The ExpertRating Online Yoga Instructor Certification. (n.d.). ExpertRating .
Retrieved from http://www.expertrating.com/yoga/yoga-certification.asp
Choose the ExpertRating Online Advanced Yoga Certification. (n.d.). Expert Rating. Retrieved from http://www.expertrating.com/certifications/Advanced-Yoga-Certification/Advanced-Yoga-Certification.asp
Fitness Trainers and Instructors. (2017, October 24). Bureau of Labor Statistics .
Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/personal-care-and-service/fitness-trainers-and-instructors.htm#tab-4
ISO 9001:2015. (2015, September). International Organization for Standardization . Retrieved from https://www.iso.org/standard/62085.html
Yoga Instructor: Salary Info, Education Requirements and Career Info. (n.d.). Study.com . Retrieved from https://study.com/articles/Yoga_Instructor_Salary_…
Source: Forbeautyandcare.com