Under the auspices of the Subcommittee on Professional Standards (Policy and Planning Committee), effort was resumed in 1984 on a program for certification/licensing of Human Factors specialists within the Human Factors Society. The approach taken by the subcommittee was to review current arguments on the proposition of certification and licensing, determine implications for HPS involvement, define the major issues, and develop a preliminary plan for a recommended certification program for consideration and review by the HFS Executive Council. Such a review was held during the 1984 Annual Meeting with the decision to proceed with developing a plan for phased development of a certification program (Blanchard, 1985). As a result of the 1984 decision, a subcommittee on certification was established under the newly formed committee on professional standards. Bob Blanchard was appointed as the initial chair. That committee has now been actively involved in developing a certification program for two years. In addition to developing a detailed program plan covering a five-year period, the committee has been active in developing a specialty data base on which to base a certification system. Funding for this data base development has been provided by the US Air Force, the Human Factors Society and, more recently, by the US Navy. The purpose of this panel session is to provide the society with a status report on the HFS certification program plan, the specialty areas that have been identified for data base development, and the process that has been used to obtain the data base information. In addition, an equally important purpose is to bring to the society's attention the experience of related professional groups in developing professional certification programs. The specific topics to be addressed by the panelists in their formal presentations are as follows.
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