Anyone can check a certificate. What an employer needs to know is whether the person in front of them meets the standard today. That is the question a registry exists to answer.
Standing, not history
A certificate is a record of one day. It says that on that day, its holder passed an examination, and it goes on saying so forever. Nothing about it changes when the holder changes, when the field moves on, or when the claim stops being true.
A registry entry works differently. It places a professional at a defined grade of competence, earned through examination, and it stays current only while the standard behind it is maintained. Standing can lapse. Following an ethics finding, it can be revoked.
That is what makes the entry worth checking. An employer reading the registry is not reading history; they are reading the present tense. The grade shown is the grade held today, verifiable by anyone, at any time.
The examination sets the bar. The registry keeps the score honest afterwards. One without the other is just paper.
Photograph: Phil Roeder, CC BY 2.0.
An employer reading the registry is not reading history. They are reading the present tense.
Draft layout. Final copy to be supplied by NSD.