Courses and Certificates

List of frequently asked questions regarding training courses and certificate programs offered by the Institutes.

The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute works with a number of the most prestigious organizations in the field, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the World Bank, the World Resources Institute (WRI), Point Carbon, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI); and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) among others. In addition, we have had over 600 learners who have taken our courses and programs. The Institute has been offering courses since November, 2007. With almost two years of operational history, we are in a good position now as we pursue accreditation. We are currently working toward the following:

Professional Programs
We are pursuing accreditation with ISO 17024 as the basis for our personnel certification. We are working toward setting standards for professional competency, ethics, and experience while establishing testing and monitoring systems as part of our professional certification program.

Educational Programs
We are pursuing accreditation as a recognized provider of continuing education credits. We currently issue certificates to individuals who complete our courses and programs.

The Certificate of Training program is a combination of different courses and exams. For a list of our Certificate of Training program, please visit our Training Programs page.

The Certificate of Participation is awarded for actively participating in the class. It involves no evaluation of your learning or expertise in the subject. The Certificate of Proficiency, in contrast, involves an exam that, along with your performance in the class itself, is used to evaluate your competency (i.e., proficiency) in the subject. Only those learners that demonstrate a sufficient level of understanding are awarded a Certificate of Proficiency. Therefore, the main value of the Certificate of Proficiency is that it provides a reliable measure (and market signal) of expertise in the subject. There is nothing quite like an exam to really test your understanding of a subject.

If the learner is due for a Certificate of Proficiency by being enrolled in the Exam module, a Certificate of Proficiency is issued in lieu of a Certificate of Participation, upon passing the exam. A learner can only receive either a Certificate of Participation or a Certificate of Proficiency.

The exams associated with our courses have not been designed to be separated from the course work. Therefore, we are not offering the exam separate from the courses.

All course materials are available online. No hardcopies of the lessons are mailed however, the online course lessons do have a print/save option.

We have also entered into a licensing agreement with the International Standards Organization to provide all learners at the Institute with one copy of the appropriate part of ISO 14064. All learners can download their copy by simply logging on to their class. ISO 14064 Part 1 is distributed as part of the Basics of Organizational GHG Accounting, Part 2 is distributed as part of the Basics of Project-Level GHG Accounting, and Part 3 is distributed as part of the GHG Verification for Inventories and Projects course.

The following websites provide guidance:

No. There is an exam that accompanies each course separately. After completing all the courses and passing all the exams, a Certificate of Training will be issued. Separately, a Certificate of Proficiency will be issued upon completing and passing the associated proficiency exams.

Finishing the courses are all dependent on the learners’ availability. The approximate number of working hours to complete one course is 16-20 hours. For example, the GHG Accounting certificate includes 3 courses (each with an expected per course total of 16-20 hours). The total working hours to complete the three courses in this program is therefore anticipated to be in the range of 48-60 hours. This is a general guideline. Some courses may be significantly longer and so the expected total working hours would be greater.

But these are all estimates, you may finish the course in more or less than the number of course hours suggested.

All classes are deployed on the web therefore there will be no physical class at any given moment.

One of the advantages of online learning or eLearning is: it is self-paced, indeed. We have set a Suggested Study Pace for every course so all learners in the class travel at the same pace, ideally. However, there are fast learners and slow ones too so completion dates may vary. Bear in mind though that the online instructor is only available for one month so being a fast learner can be advantageous as you have more time to consult with your online instructor.

The “class time” we mean is the one month period (or longer in some cases) that the course will be available with an instructor and a learning assistant / beadle to guide you. The course is self-paced and 100% online so you can work on the material on your own schedule. There is a virtual classroom, but there is no need to be online at the same time as your classmates or instructors with the exception of scheduled chat sessions with your instructor and other learners in your class.

The course will be available to you for a one year period starting when you are registered into the class. During the class time, the instructor will answer any questions or clarifications for the course.

You can begin with GHGMI courses as soon as you are given access. These courses should be listed under My Courses in your member site. All learners are automatically granted a Basic membership. A Premium membership can be purchased for an additional fee.

As soon as you are done reviewing the Maximizing eLearning course, please proceed to your enrolled courses. Please take note that the courses will appear on your list of available courses on its opening date, which is usually the first day of the month.

Yes, we allow learners to take more than one course at a time. however, we have noticed that participants who practice this tend to be “unparticipative” in the online discussions. And so, we do not recommend this as learners tend to spread themselves too thinly during a given month.

The passing grade is 70% and will be manually reviewed by the Dean of the Institute. The Institute gives those who failed in the first attempt of the Proficiency Exam a second chance, but the second attempt must be taken within the one month period after the results are given to you.

The GHG Management Institute currently offers three types of certificates. A Certificate of Participation is awarded to those completing each course, assuming active participation. Certificates of Proficiency are available if you successfully pass the exam associated with each course (separate fee involved for exams).

Under our Professional Programs, we are also offering Certificates of Training that represent the completion of a full curriculum of courses, and their associated exams. For more information on these click here.