Microsoft MCSE Courses
The quote you're referring to represents the opinion of one person. However, this wasn't the only individual who had negative things to say thing about Microsoft certifications. Space limitations prohibited quoting every individual interviewed, but as an example, one person told me he had passed a Microsoft certification exam even though he'd never used a Microsoft product (he's a Unix expert).
That said, Microsoft wasn't the only vendor singled out by interviewees in the article. Other participants expressed doubt about the real value of Sun certifications, as well as other vendors with a potential financial stake in the certification process.
The quote in this article doesn't stand without question. The bottom line is that certification isn't a cut-and-dried issue, which is why the article also includes a number of positive comments and statistics on the subject. For example, numbers from a survey by consulting firm Foote Partners indicated that many respondents received raises after certification and believe that their certification played a major role in moving them up the pay scale. No doubt many of these folks had Microsoft certifications.
Detailed statistics regarding the potential financial value of one vendor's certification over another's are difficult to come by. For example, many network managers and administrators have received certification from more than one vendor. Also, the fact that these vendors' certification programs deal with different elements of the network increases the probability of an apples-to-oranges comparison. However, the article does contain a number of statistics regarding trends in skills-based pay (in other words, pay related to training and certification). In addition to product courses, there are self-study certification programs for Microsoft's MCSE and Novell Network administration, as well as courses on Microsoft Excel and Word, Crystal Reports, and other technologies. Courses begin at $ 169. More than 500 students have already gone online, according to Thompson. Accpac has other programs in place to make training accessible in a cost-effective manner, particularly for more complex products that mandate instructor-led classroom training. Joey Shull, an Accpac-certified consultant with M&C Management Systems in Marietta, Ga., remembers taking a five-day class in Atlanta. "I can't afford to sit in a classroom for that long; that's time that's dead from a consulting standpoint," he says. He recently took an "environmental" technology course addressing Web-enablement issues. "It was so much easier [to take], it was ridiculous. You didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn to beat that Atlantic traffic." No less important, "You always have the opportunity to ask questions, and the classes were much smaller than if we had been in an actual classroom."
MCSE Certification
|