Intermediate and Advanced Corrections Certifications

Recently the e-board has been contacted by members with questions or concerns regarding obtaining their intermediate and advanced level certifications. We thought it would be helpful to provide this information to all of our members.

The process to apply for your intermediate and advance level certifications changed several years ago, providing a path to advanced levels of certifications for those who have little or no college education. Members who have college credits can still use their college to achieve certifications even faster. Until this contract, members would often be able to achieve their intermediate and advanced certifications prior to when they had achieved the necessary years of service to be eligible to receive the appropriate incentive pay. During our latest contract negotiations, we were able to have the eligibility for incentive pay changed to the date that the member’s certification is granted.

This change allows many members to receive their intermediate and advanced certification pay earlier, which makes it all the more important to be mindful of when you are eligible and begin the process of applying for your intermediate and advanced certification PRIOR to when you are eligible. The MCSO Training Unit can sign and send completed certification applications and certification worksheets to DPSST as much as 30 days in advance of your eligibility in order to help ensure that you are granted your certification as close to the day you are eligible as possible.

It is recommended that members start the process of applying for their advanced levels of certification several months in advance of their eligibility date in order to ensure that the required F7 – Application for Certification, and F7WS – Intermediate/Advanced Worksheet are completed, reviewed and signed by both the member and the MCSO Training Unit, and then sent to DPSST.

Please remember that the MCSO Training Unit is a resource to members during this process, but the F7WS – Intermediate/Advanced Worksheet must be completed by the member. It does take a fairly significant amount of time to review your training record, determine what trainings will fit into each of the four categories of training, and provide brief explanations as to why each training is related to the category of training you have selected.

If you are having difficulty determining first steps in this process, please contact any e-board member and we will happily help get you pointed in the right direction.