On this topic Newsletters Managing the IT Professional. Some workers also frown upon the certification process, saying it is too hard to know which skills will stay valuable in a quickly evolving technology climate and that they struggle to identify which programs will offer quality training. Both the corporate and academic groups agree that with the right improvements, certification of technology skills could become a highly valuable tool for IT success in the United States. Companies present at the conference including Microsoft and Cisco Systems said that their certification programs are often confused with an educational program. Workers should not think of the vendors' efforts as a high-tech college, but instead as a way to gauge specific skill sets for software proficiency, in the case of Microsoft, or networking knowledge for Cisco.
Certifications are nothing more than a way to test a specific knowledge set.
Employers want to hire people based on these skill sets. Vendors want to encourage the development of workers familiar with their technology, because customers are more likely to buy software from Microsoft, for example, if they know there are people out there who can manage it. The problem that arises, however, is making sure the workers are truly qualified and that their skills stay up to date. Both Microsoft and Cisco look to raise the bar on their entry-level certifications, making even the beginning steps of the qualification process valuable for an extended period of time for the candidates. The companies think specializing their programs further will help keep skills in line with a rapidly moving market.