[consulting] Drupal Certification (was: General consultant's vent)

[Dries Buytaert]

While I'm skeptic about certification programs myself, I also see  
value in them.   In a way, a masters degree from MIT or a PhD from  
Stanford is also a certification.  Granted, there are many examples of  
bad certification programs, but there are also examples of valuable  
certification programs; e.g. the CISCO certification program is very  
thorough, hands-on and valued by the market.

All things considered, I think there is value in having Drupal  
certification programs, especially if Drupal continues to grow.   
Similarly, I think there is value in higher education.

My personal view is that the Drupal Association is _not_ the best body  
to create "the" Drupal certification program.  It's my belief that we  
are best served with allowing many organizations to create their own  
Drupal certification programs, and have the market/buyer set their  
value -- similar to how universities built reputation.  (In such a  
world, it is very important that the certification programs are  
labeled properly; i.e. "ACME Drupal certification" and not just  
"Drupal certification", where ACME is the name of the company or  
organization.)

Competition around Drupal certification programs would be great,  
because it would likely help improve the quality of the different  
Drupal certification programs.

Also, a certification program doesn't imply that your drupal.org user  
profile becomes less valuable either.  Again, let the market/buyer set  
the value of a drupal.org user profile versus a certification program  
versus a resume versus a portfolio.

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://buytaert.net  ::  http://acquia.com