Requalification

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of obtaining a new qualification or reestablishing one’s credentials in a particular field or profession
2. The act of undergoing training or assessment to regain proficiency or meet updated standards in an occupation
3. A formal procedure that involves demonstrating the necessary skills and knowledge to re-certify or validate one’s professional qualifications

Etymology: Requalification is a plain compound: the prefix "re-", meaning "again", attached to "qualification", the noun for the act of making someone fit or competent for a role. The base noun traces back through Middle English and Old French to Latin "qualificare", "to describe or define the quality of something", built from "qualis", "of what kind". So the new word simply means "qualifying again," and the sense of renewed proficiency comes entirely from the prefix. The prefix itself is older than it looks. Its ancestry runs through Latin "re-" and reaches back to a Proto-Italic form, which means the same "back" or "again" idea was already present in the early languages of the Italian peninsula. English took the prefix in large numbers, and it now attaches freely to almost any verb or noun, which is why the word could be formed on the spot whenever a field needed a term for retraining.

Synonyms: recertification, retraining