Interview: Karl Liebman on the State of IT Certification and the Role of E-learning
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Published 6/23/2005
By Anne Martinez
GoCertify: What portion of Citrix certification candidates have used e-learning as part of their certification preparation?
Karl Liebman: For the past year or so, all of our certified professionals have used eLearning as part of their certifications. Our technical certification programs blend eLearning with instructor-led training, allowing us to focus our content to the appropriate media. By using eLearning for topics that require less direct interaction, we are able to provide low cost, always-on training, while using ILT to prepare students for the more complex tasks.
GoCertify: How critical is it that a certification have a corresponding training curriculum?
Karl Liebman: We view the two as inextricably linked, and provide training to prepare for each of our exams and certifications. Of course, the exams test experiential knowledge as well as materials directly covered in training, our way of encouraging learners to work with the products before earning their certifications. The training curriculum prepares them for just that.
GoCertify: What importance do you place on branding a certification program?
Karl Liebman: Certainly, the more the industry knows about great certifications, the faster they can grow. But the key is more in the applicability of the certification than the branding. So, a company with great products in broad use can successfully launch new certification programs as long as the new certifications demonstrably improve the effectiveness of those certified, the basis of subsequent branding campaigns.
GoCertify: What is your opinion on the importance of different certification vendors working together to promote certification and how they can best go about this?
Karl Liebman: The industry should be collaborating to generally raise awareness about the value of certifications. For the most part, we rely on the leadership of the testing providers to drive this. They are the most directly affected by certification trends, and are less affected by some of the intrinsic challenges associated with collaboration among competitors. I would look for continued expansion in this area, focusing on market research first as a way to better understand customer needs, followed by targeted marketing aimed separately at IT employees and managers, funded through combinations of vendors and testing providers. It is in all of our best interests to do so, and I'm confident that our industry is forward-thinking enough to recognize that.
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