Environmental professional certification programs evolved from earlier forms of validation, including apprenticeships, training programs, education programs, and licensing. During the Industrial Revolution, would-be professional artists and artisans apprenticed themselves to practitioners who had earned a favorable reputation. Generations of mentors and students proved themselves by practicing their trades, and, if they did what they did well, they did well. Our Information Age, however, has imposed new requirements on many practitioners. Beyond training, they might need certificates attesting to training, degrees attesting to learning, and licenses allowing them to practice. The Information Age, ironically, was compensating for information inadequacy, as the number of practitioners and specialties grew and as the distances over which practitioners were recruited expanded more rapidly than word of mouth and thus more rapidly than reputation.