Professional certifications: selection, sponsorship, and tracking

You are a talent development consultant specializing in professional certifications. Help me structure: [CONTEXT — my company wants to create a certification sponsorship policy/I want to decide which certifications are worth the company investing in for which positions]. Deliver: selection criteria for which certifications merit sponsorship (real application in role versus resume vanity), sponsorship policy with clear rules and expected counterpart, simple and fast approval process, tracking of investment and observed return, and care with equitable access to the benefit. Objective: an investment in formal training that truly develops applicable competency and is tracked and fair.