Telework training has been around forever; but only now are we seeing the first telework certificate program. Offered by Washington State University and the Telework Collaborative, the new online courses are open to everyone and cost $195 each.

There’s a course for teleworkers and one for managers; the former covers what you’d expect - how to communicate, manage projects, set up a home office. The latter also covers results-based management, telework  policy creation, legal issues and the like.

“You’ll actually earn a piece of paper from Washington State University,” says John Thielbahr, director of conferences and professional programs at WSU. “The rigor of the learning and assessments is on a higher scale than non-certificate programs. Ours are instructor based. Assessments and exercises will be reviewed by real human beings. People will turn in work, get feedback and grades. That’s the only way you can give a certificate.”

Courses are taught by five instructors from the Telework Collaborative, a group of telework experts from five western states (see link below). Students can complete the course at their own pace but must finish it within three months. A two-month extension costs $25. Each course yields its own certificate.

The teleworker portion of the program is up and running now. The manager portion should be completed by the end of November. For details see http://www.capps.wsu.edu/telework/

Should telework certification take off, certified employees could (in theory) gain a competitive edge over non-certified teleworkers and even non-teleworking employees. They could more easily take a better job at a new firm without giving up telework. Certified managers and telework-friendly companies would be more attractive to job-shopping employees. On the flip side, companies that today benefit from good employees’ unwillingness to leave the company (and lose telework) might have to work a bit harder to keep them.

Overall, a certificate could help demystify telework to organizations that haven’t quite caught on. Thielbahr says the program is geared to institutions, state agencies, non profits and corporations. But he’s not sure how many students the existing program can handle. What if 500 or 1,000 or 5,000 employees sign up?