Computer Certification: 2007 in Review and a Peek at What Lies Ahead
By Anne Martinez
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Secondly, there have been several developments related to the testing networks themselves. Instead of using both of the major testing networks, Prometric and Pearson VUE as they have for many years, Microsoft and Cisco each announced a move to test exclusively through a single test provider. Interestingly, they made opposite choices, both announced at virtually the same time, with Microsoft contracting with Prometric and Cisco with Pearson VUE. Since both of these offer robust testing networks worldwide, this should not significantly affect certification candidates. It does show, however, that both of them offer the necessary worldwide reach, and it is no longer necessary to test through both in order to ensure test availability. Other certification vendors may well make a similar move in the coming year, leading to even stiffer competition than usual between Prometric and Pearson VUE, which could work out well for certification vendors. Prometric, by the way, has been spun off from The Thomson Corporation, and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Educational Testing Service (ETS).
As far as the cost of certification exams, always of importance to certification candidates, the price of most of SAS Institute's exam rose from $150 to $180, and Planet3 Wireless boosted their Certified Wireless Security Professional (CWSP) fee from $175 to $255, and CompTIA prices seem to have edged upward; otherwise, exam fees remained relatively stable throughout 2007.
Revitalizing Certification's Value
It's no secret that computer certification has been suffering through a bit of the doldrums in recent years, still serving a useful purpose but fading slowly farther from the star status among IT professionals and employers that it originally held. Rather than simply observing this trend, this year certification vendors seem to have decided it's time to address the perceived diminishing value of certification head on and act to reverse it.
Just this November it was announced that Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Novell and Sun, CompTIA, and LPI (Linux Professional Institute), along with testing network providers Prometric and VUE and the Kaplan education company, have joined forces to create an Information Technology Certification Council (ITCC). The ITCC has the goal of driving the value of certification by addressing topics such as exam security, perceptions versus realities of IT certification value, return on investment, and training to testing ratios. The plan is to do this by targeting both employers and certification candidates. If this goes beyond the organizational stage, the combined might of these heavy hitters could be a real force for certification renewal. Individual certification vendors are also increasing general promotional activities for their programs.
The training to testing ratio has long been an issue of concern to certification vendors and is one of the things they are working to improve. Apparently, many IT workers take certification training but never take the exams to obtain the credential. There are probably multiple reasons for this, such as incurring additional expense with no guarantee of passing the exams and a feeling that the certification itself will not offer much additional value. To address the issue of expense, an increasing number of vendors are offering discount programs and free exam retakes. This year Microsoft, Novell, SAS Institute, and Sun Microsystems, among others, all ran free retake promotions.
This is all good, but what, besides generalized promotion and attention to test security, really needs to be done? Whether the value of certification will go up, down, or simply trot along in the future lies squarely in the hands of the certification vendors, who must address two inextricably intertwined tasks, first to create certifications that offer concrete value to IT professionals and then to convince employers that this value exists. A few certifications, such as Cisco's high end Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) designation, have almost always had this winning combination; other certifications, such as Microsoft's Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and Novell's Certified Novell Engineer (CNE) once had it but have largely lost it.
