The debate on certification - again
I recently came across stating that SAP in NZ was going to require SAP consultants to be certified:
This topic has been debated many times before, and is certainly generating a fair few tweets, but this is the first time that we have seen such a comment from SAP.
The question is whether this is going to become a SAP policy worldwide, or whether it is just a reaction to a requirement in a local market.
To a degree it is understandable that employers want some reassurance that the person they are hiring to do a job can, in the opinion of SAP, do the job. For SAP it makes sense to encourage SAP professionals to prove their competence, as a poor implementation of SAP’s software inevitably reflects poorly on SAP itself.
The arguments that are thrown in the ring against certification are many, including:
“Certification is no replacement for experience”
“this is just a way for SAP to make money from consultants.”
“some modules don’t have certification available.”
“Certifications are a lazy way for recruiters to “quantify” a candidate’s experience.”
“even with the experience I have, I might be over looked for a role because I’m not certified?!”
So what’s the solution?
Well it would be a logistical challenge, but maybe SAP should offer automatic certification for SAP professionals with a certain number of implementations under their belts. In addition, they should offer some sort of discount for those SAP consultants that have a large number of certifications to apply for. (It seems that SAP is offering discounts on certification at SAP TechEd 09)
And finally, to ensure that this really does provide value, they must incorporate some element of qualifying a consultant’s practical experience into the certification, which they have indicated they are considering.
In the meantime, some consultants are certified and some aren’t. If you’re not, how do you ensure that it doesn’t count against you when you are looking for a new a contract, where recruiters and hiring managers are busy and may not spend the time to fully read your CV?
At sap1 we’ve been thinking about how to make the playing field as even as possible!
When you join sap1, a profile is created for you which as well containing your work history, a personal summary, your photo, your blog and your tweets, also contains the same consistent information for all users:
- Number of years SAP experience
- Skills (modules)
- Number of implementations completed
- Industries experienced in
- Languages spoken
Currently, we do not ask users for information on their certification – as its usefulness is open to debate.
Your views on this and other topics will be taken into consideration with regard to the future direction of sap1, so let us know what you think.
28/09/2009 17:50:42
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