The goal of the HPC Certification Forum is to categorize, define, and examine competencies expected from proficient HPC practitioners. The community-led forum is working toward establishing a globally acknowledged HPC certification process, a process that engages with HPC centres to identify gaps in users’ knowledge, and with users to identify the skills required to perform their tasks. In this article, we introduce the forum and summarize the progress made over the last two years. The release of the first officially supported certificate is planned for the second half of 2020.