Professional letter designations.

I've always wondered what it would be like to have letters behind my name.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  You know people like doctors.  Who have DDS, DVM, or MD.  I know there are a lot more than that.  Even nurses have them, LPN, RN, DN.  Rhoda has an RN designation from the Philippine Board.  I know several people who have them, mostly doctors at the clinic or professors at the university.  To me, it means that person took a lot of personal investment into their chosen career. 

When I chose to get into the Safety Field last year.  I always watched with curiosity different safety instructors write on the white board behind their names: CHST, STS, CM, CIH, CSP.  I was curious to know what those letters meant: CHST stood for Certified Health Safety Technician, STS stands for Safety Technical Supervisor; CM is for Construction Manager; CIH stood for Certified Industrial Hygienist; and CSP is for Certified Safety Professional.  There are many others from different organizations. 

These designations are not affordable.  They are very expensive investment and takes a lot of committed time to earn these designations from the professional organizations that award them.  Earlier this year, I started looking into getting my CHST from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals and World Safety Organization.  I've been tossing the idea back and forth in my head.  There are advantages and disadvantages earning these designation letters.  The pros do out weight the cons.  The bottom line is public assurance that the person holding those professional credentials is trained according to a certain standard. 

I am studying for the Certified Health Safety Technician Exam for the Board of Certified Safety Professionals and World Safety Organization. I will attain those credentials next year with a lot of studying, and by God's grace. 

However to my surprise.  I learned a couple of weeks ago that I was awarded the Construction Site Safety Supervisor (CSSS) and Construction Site Safety Technician (CSST) Certifications from the National Construction Center for Education and Research last February 22, 2011.  I was browsing my online NCCER transcript for a course that I had completed in February that was not added on there yet.  That's when I discovered the certifications along with the missing safety course were in my transcript.  What timing! 

I'm not sure if these are counted as  professional designation letters.  I have seen some Safety Instructors use them as such.  I am not going to do that until I get verification from NCCER, that they are letter designators. 

ESTA...