Rapid changes in computer and related technologies and desire to reach the pinnacle of excellence require Information Technology (IT) professionals always on the learning track. Few would argue that all those who opt for IT professions, more than any other, need to follow the path of development and keep their knowledge and skill levels updated or they may not bag a job let alone survive one. One way to stay ahead is through certifications. However, certification is not being given due importance that leaves some of them lagging behind.

As per the popular IT literature, “certification is a formal process of making certain that an individual is qualified in terms of particular knowledge or skills. Certification programs are often fostered or supervised by some certifying agency, such as a professional association. Some major computer software and hardware vendors provide a certification program for installers of their product, such as Microsoft’s Certified Systems Engineer for its Windows operating systems, IBM’s Certified Lotus Specialist, and Cisco’s Certified Internetwork Professional. The A+ certification program is a certification that attests to general computer installation and customization knowledge and capabilities.”

Validation of skill levels through product or platform wise certification and recertification goes a long way in career development; to stay current and excel in the computing professions. It improves skills and sets relevant international standards that increase individual professional standing throughout the world, where ever a particular product or application is being used. In these tough economic times when jobs are harder to come by any where in the world and traditionally so in Pakistan, certification certainly adds to professional credibility and recognition leading to advantages in the competitive high tech job market or to improve on the performance of those who already happen to be working.

Let us first look at the IT education to ascertain the need of certification. “IT education is a failure if the presence of local IT professionals does not improve and they do not get noticed at international level,” says Arthur Javed, the Project Director in an IT institute in Lahore. “The ways IT graduates are struggling to find jobs are a reflection of how IT education is faring in the country. Large number of IT institutions has come up but too many who graduate each years are seen performing poorly in the field because they lack state-of-the-art skills needed to join the corporate world in the competitive milieu of the information age. There are two main reasons for this: first, most institutions do not keep the curricula up-to-date and second they have no interaction with the world industry or local corporate sector hence do not equip the graduates with what is coming new in the market and what sort of matching expertise is required. One would like to see IT colleges and universities thrusting far more towards equipping young people for the world of business rather than giving them just a degree in a hurry,” adds Arthur Javed.

A few years ago, student aspired to pursue careers in fields related to IT instead of dreaming to become a doctor or a pilot, thanks to IT hype of the time (it was certainly not an IT boom). That created waves in education sector and demand for IT education shot up immensely. It was during that time that trend for certification also picked up. Many private sector institutions offered courses for preparing professionals for various kinds of certifications abroad. Many did it by self teaching the skills. Both graduates and non-graduates got themselves certified in chosen sub fields. But like IT education, the tendency has quietened down relegating certification once again to a non-issue. Reasons are obvious: no large scale IT deployment in the country that could have resulted into new job openings. Though private sector concerns taking advantages of IT tend to chose certified professional over degrees holders, or a certified degree holders, but majority is not keen to sponsor further training or certification of their employees that means spending extra money. Fresh graduates at their own cannot afford to pay foreign certifying agencies, associations or international IT companies offering certification on their systems and or products. “Why should I pay for the certification putting in all the efforts with no promise that there will be a job at the end,” says Sohail Rasheed who has done Masters in Computer Sciences and is doing a non IT job presently. Moreover, it is also not always easy to maintain the skills and spirit required to continually reinvent — the supreme survival strategy in any of the IT fields - for anyone whether employed or not, permanent or on contract.

Unlike other traditional fields, the IT profession is an open one. Even for those trained in the latest skills, getting a job and starting a career in IT these days is not quite as easy as it is generally presumed. The field is notorious for an ever accelerating pace of change, and for the rate at which yesterday’s hot skills become out of date tomorrow. This puts an extra demand on professionals though it does not make the status of IT profession any less than those more established professions. Certification is one of the ways to improve professional standards, credibility and prestige in this line of work.

Jobs opportunities are low all over the word. More so, in Pakistan’s IT sector there is no corresponding rise. So far there are only a few local ventures that are seen leveraging IT for competitive advantages and only they can offer better career opportunities to the IT professionals. “No organization, small or large, can achieve advantages necessary for financial and competitive reasons at global level without IT applications yet local market scouting reveals that there are only a few new openings for IT professionals,” Sid Hasan, human resource development practitioners predicts, “high profile IT jobs will not come by till the corporate sector adapts to IT and conforms to international practices. And it may take some time,” which hardly augurs well for economy that is even otherwise not very sound.” In order to correct this problem, some serious human resource planning and actions are required at national level.

In my opinion education cannot be replaced by any amount of certification and recertification but going through this sort of specialization does provide professional recognition for those who are not holding degrees. It might help them in getting a job in those organisations where degree is not the only criterion for the job.

One economic house in Lahore has shifted from Windows to Linux platform recently. The industrial group arranged for conversion training of its IT staff as well as certification of a few. “Changes that the certification brought are very visible. Khushnud Baz Khan, Oracle certified and System Administrative of the group says, “All other things being equal, certification has given the job incumbents a critical edge and new confidence. It has not only added to their personal profiles but also shows on ground. Certified professional has better ability to successfully implement business solutions for organization. They are rightly considered as expert on the system.”

Certification embraces not only the workforce; it touches the whole of IT technologies, business methodologies and corporate practices. It does set the tone of professionalism in IT fields. My recommendation is this: Keep your knowledge an skills updated through certification and recertification and have a claim to know your area(s) of interest in depth.