The Changing Role of IS Certifications
by Alan Salisbury, President, Learning Tree International
It's no secret that IS professionals have witnessed tremendous changes in the 90's. Many (if not most) of the technologies they are working with in 1997 were either relatively obscure, or simply didn't exist as recently as five years ago. The Internet was the domain of academics and defense contractors. Object-oriented techniques were emerging, but certainly were not widely adopted. And "Java" was slang for coffee.Just a few years ago, Novell's Certified Network/Novell Engineer (CNE) credential was the "hot ticket" to instant employability in well paid positions, and the available supply couldn't keep up with the demand. While not obsolete today, the CNE has been overtaken by the MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer). Windows NT has become the operating system and networking solution of choice for a host of corporate and government organizations.
Less obvious but equally significant are the changes that have taken place in the areas of professional development and career management. One result of the years of corporate downsizing and massive layoffs is a new realization that employment is transient. The typical career pattern today may consist of a series of job assignments. These may last anywhere from two to seven years in duration, each of which might be with a different employer. In this environment, you, not the corporate human resources department, have to chart your own career course.
While the term "paradigm shift" is frequently overused, it aptly describes the change that has come about in career management and professional development. As an IS professional today, you need to take responsibility for managing your own career. And you must plan an appropriate professional development program which supports your particular career objectives.
IT professional development planningIn preparing your own professional development program, you need to consider short-term as well as long-term requirements. For the short term, your needs and your employer's needs will normally be compatible, if not identical. You should get the training you need for the specific assignments you are undertaking.
For the longer term, your career objectives should determine your professional development requirements, which may or may not be supported by your employer. Both education and training are key ingredients for your long-term plan.
There was a time when having a degree in computer science or a similar field was a ticket to a long, well-paid and highly productive career. You could join an MIS group in a large corporation, or become a programmer at a computer manufacturer or software company, and move up through the ranks over the years. To stay on top of trends, tools and technologies, you could read professional journals and attend occasional conferences. The ambitious IS professional might attend graduate school at night, picking up additional knowledge en route to an MS degree, or perhaps an MBA. Hopefully, this would lead to an extra promotion prior to retirement.
No longer. The one constant today is change -- changing technology and changing careers. In response, the IS professional must follow a very different educational path today than was appropriate as recently as five or ten years ago.
The key to long-term success is gaining a solid foundation in the fundamentals of information technology and computer science, including theory as well as application. Databases, operating systems, programming languages and methodologies are just a part of it, but an important part. And, of course, communications and networking are increasingly critical.
A good undergraduate program in computer science or information systems will typically provide an excellent preparation for a career in IS. But it may fall short in providing specific skills that have immediate application in the current job market. Programming fundamentals, for instance, are often taught in college courses using languages like Pascal, while C and C++ are the languages sought in the want ads.
But no matter what specific skills are learned in a degree program, they will have a short "half-life" -- as short as 18 months. And the rate of technological change can only be expected to increase in the future, creating a continuing professional challenge.
Today's MIS degree has become a launching platform for a lifetime of continuing education, emphasizing the importance of foundation principles. The IS professional of the 90s will, of necessity, allocate major blocks of time to self-study and formal training on a regular basis, or experience rapid obsolescence and career limitations. Enlightened companies are providing training opportunities for their IS staff on a regular basis as one means of retaining the brightest and the best, while others may simply seek to hire the new skills they need.
Enhanced role of professional certificationProfessional Certification has taken on an important complementary role to a formal degree. While a degree represents foundation knowledge, a professional certification can be an indication of specific skills relating to current technology.
Professional certification works for the employer as a validation of the requisite skills for productivity in a current position. It works for the employee in support of career advancement or job mobility. Where key jobs include a requirement for demonstrated skills in a specific technology, certification provides a visible and portable credential to satisfy that requirement.
Professional certification is undergoing its own evolution, both in available sources and in the nature of the available programs. The number of different IT certification programs offered today is on the order of 100 or more. They are available from vendors, independent training providers, professional associations, and colleges and universities.
In addition to offering traditional degree programs, many colleges and universities now offer certificates in specified areas of technology to serve the continuing education needs of local businesses. Local programs, however, can fall short of the needs of larger corporations with nationwide or global requirements. This can be particularly true if consistency of content is important.
Many vendors offer certification programs based on in-depth training on their specific products. Programs like the Novell CNE help vendors to ensure that their value-added resellers (VAR's) have the requisite skills to provide quality support to their customers. User organizations, on the other hand, may find it preferable to ensure that their technical staff have a broader understanding of the technology than provided by a single vendor's certification.
Thus, there is also an important role for multi-vendor (or vendor-independent) technology-based certification to complement vendor certification. Both types of certification training are available from numerous training sources nationwide. Learning Tree courses, for example, support the leading vendor-certification programs, as well as Learning Tree's own technology-based and job-function-based certification programs.
Higher level certification for IT professionals is available from two independent organizations, the Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals (ICCP) and the Network Professional Association (NPA). The ICCP offers both a Certified Computing Professional (CCP) and an Associate Computing Professional (ACP) designation, while the NPA now offers a Certified Network Professional (CNP) designation.
The CCP and CNP designations require various examinations to determine mastery of the appropriate knowledge, requisite levels of experience, and adherence to a professional code of ethics. Both organizations accept a limited number of outside certifications in lieu of some specialty exams, and both require continuing education to retain their certifications.
In essence, the CCP and CNP designations are intended to serve the same role for the information technology profession as the CPA designation does for the financial profession.
Career checkupIt's 1997. Do you know where your career is headed? Take a look in the mirror and you'll see the person responsible for planning your career and mapping out a supporting professional development program. If you haven't already given this some serious thought, now would be a good time to get started.
Certainly advanced degrees will always boost an IS career. Professional certification, however, is becoming equally important. It can contribute materially to your marketability in a highly mobile industry. Like death and taxes, the need for continuing education throughout an IS career should be regarded as a certainty.
Alan Salisbury is president of Learning Tree International, and a 30-year veteran of the IS industry. He can be reached at (703) 709-5979 (voice) or (703) 471-4732 (fax).
First Published in ComputerWorld, 1996
Copyright © 1996 ComputerWorld. All rights reserved.
Used by Permission.