Importance of ISA CAP and CCST Certification in Automation Jobs

In today’s world of industrial automation, simple programming knowledge does not matter for the job market to hire employees. This is because automation has advanced to such high levels that mere programming and troubleshooting skills will not be enough for you to crack the job market. For this purpose, there are a lot of certification courses available in the market. One such certificate, which is in great demand, is of CAP and CCST, which is offered by the ISA, or the International Society of Automation itself.

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What is an ISA CAP Certificate?

CAP stands for Certified Automation Professional. The CAT certification helps an engineer become a thorough professional in industrial automation. It covers the whole aspects of automation regarding programming, networking, instrumentation, and electrical panels in a detailed manner. The course is offered by ISA itself, which makes it a very valuable certification. Once completed, the engineer can work in any department, starting from design to deployment to engineering to R&D and even manufacturing. The most important thing to note is that CAP promotes an engineer to the manager level mostly due to the nature of the expertise covered. For this reason, this course is mostly covered by senior engineers who have at least some experience in the automation field. CAP covers many standards like IEEE, NEC, NEMA, OSHA, FEMA, and API.

If you look into details, CAP covers a wide range of topics like international standards of industries, safety standards of SIL level, system integration with network architecture, process control, and project management with scheduling and life cycle expertise.

Importance of ISA CAP and CCST Certification in Automation Jobs

What is an ISA CCST Certificate?

CCST stands for Certified Control Systems Technician. The CCST certification hemps an engineer to become a thorough professional at the field level and helps him troubleshoot issues at the site more easily and efficiently. It covers more detailed descriptions of field instrumentation and electrical panel troubleshooting. The course is also offered by ISA itself, which makes it a very valuable certification. Once completed, the engineer can work in the project and commissioning, or repair and service department in a very expert way, making him the most suitable candidate to help engineers at the site for commissioning or servicing. This is because by now, he knows most all the aspects that an engineer will face in the field regarding instrumentation, automation, control, and electrical panels. For this reason, this course is mostly covered by engineers who have less exposure to automation and want to first strengthen their field knowledge, before they can become a detailed technical manager.

If you look into details, CCST covers a wide range of topics like reading P&ID, instrument documents, and electrical drawings, installation of cables, maintenance activities, loop testing and control activities, and calibration of instruments.

Difference Between ISA CAP and ISA CCST

CAP is a higher-level certificate than CCST, as it is meant for the management level and makes the engineer a more technical professional. CCST is preferable for engineers who first want to become an expert at the field level, so that they get their basics through.
CCST deals in a practical way, whereas CAP deals in all practical, theoretical, managerial, and strategic ways.
CCST works in the project, service, and commissioning team, whereas CAP works in the design, engineering, and R&D team.
There are three levels of the CCST certificate – level 1 (technician), level 2 (technician specialist), and level 3 (technician master). In CAP, there is only one global-level certificate.
Typical job posts with CCST level can go from a field service technician to a field specialist, whereas CAP level job posts can go from a controls engineer to an automation manager to an R&D specialist.

Why do ISA Certifications Matter?

Now that we have understood both the certificates and their differences, let us see why they really matter for industrial automation engineers and managers:

As said earlier, mere experience with programming and normal automation jobs does not matter; and so these certificates add value to your career by making you an expert. You can deal more precisely in various automation scenarios of instrumentation, electrical, networking, and safety, making you a perfect all-rounder.
When a customer knows that you are ISA certified, they gain more confidence in your employer, believing that your company hires talented and more technical professionals for their jobs. This gives more chances to get business for your company, thus increasing your value.
With CAP and CCST, you prove that you are a proper practical person, rather than just dealing in theoretical values. And as field automation jobs demand more practical knowledge due to various types of issues, these certificates add an extra feather to your cap.
The biggest advantage is that as these courses are ISA certified, it gives you a global face, making you valuable to companies even abroad. Critical industrial sectors will prefer you more, as you can strengthen their base performance.
For more demand in the market, if you first start with CCST and end with CAP, you will become a true professional, adding more value to your job profile. This will definitely boost your increment and salary hike chances to a very high level, as compared to normal engineers and managers.

With both the courses and certificates, we learned that they add a very high value to automation professionals. Click on the ISA links below for more details: