Cert bashing outdated

Demand for training is definitely up at the moment, according to Paul Athanasakos, manager of vendor liaison and strategic alliances and national sales manager at Excom Education.

As companies look at upgrading their network infrastructure, they recognize a knowledge gap exists and need skills to meet that, he said.

Athanasakos who, while acknowledging the time-honoured practice of 'certification bashing', said the industry was far more mature now.

"Certification is almost mandatory now, even for tertiary graduates and particularly for new graduates.

"It would be a hard call for a prospective employer to scale down its requirements to employ someone without demonstrable skills in a specific area.

Excom, which has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, was named Microsoft Learning Solution Partner of the Year last month and also offers training and certification in Citrix, Novell, CompTia Check Point, GNU Linux and some Cisco technologies.

While training and certification are two separate streams, with certification the lesser in terms of numbers, IT professionals should pursue certification, not for their employer but for their own sake; it's something they will always have and can keep on their resume.

"The industry has matured and IT professionals have got to know their stuff. Even though some complain that certification can be a burden to upgrade and maintain - given the time and cost involved - it is a robust and changing industry," Athanasakos said.

With both positive and negative comments about certification from the customer community, it remains that, for two candidates of equal tertiary qualifications, the certificated prospect finds it easier to get to interviews, he said.

Vendors require practitioners using their technologies to upgrade to the latest versions to fill any possible knowledge gaps. Many integrators also find that customers are now stipulating that the skill and certification levels must be documented of the people who will be working on projects.

Athanasakos said the question of who pays - employer or employee - is an ongoing debate.

"Generally, it is the employee who makes the first contact and does all the research to determine which certification to study. Each organization differs in its budgets and policies; some companies pay, some contribute, in other cases the study is self-funded.

"Ultimately, the certification is gained through independent testing, so it's always with the individual."