Certification - for or against?
Our training is designed to teach people to undertake their employed role, and is usually paid for by their employer. And as such, our course agendas are tailored to teach them what they need to know for their work rather than to pass any certification exams.
That does not mean that in principle I'm against good certification schemes within a vocational education environment - they can and do provide a measure for prospective new employers (
and indeed that very ability means that current employers prefer to send delegates to a course that doesn't encourage the resource they're investing in to move on!). It's just that we don't run the schemes, and we train people to do the job rather than to pass the exam!
The
Perl Certification WebSite says ... "The Perl community is never going to agree on Perl certification as a whole. Some members don't see value in certifications, or might even think of them as something harmful to the community. But many people do see the need for certification and would like to be certified. These people should have the opportunity to get certified. Not by some cheap online test, but by a series of modular exams at face to face testing centers. Certificates that actually mean something and prove the candidates are actually capable of coding and debugging."
Now - we will (happily) provide each delegate with a certificate of course completion, confirm attendance if asked by them in the future, and
by prior request and with the knowledge of each delegate involved provide our general feedback after the course. More importantly, we also provide an ongoing support service for delegates should they have questions that come up after the course, but that's a story for another article!
By staying away from a certificate-lead course, we can encourage delegates to bring their own applications and data along with them on the course, and concentrate on making real and effective use of that for the vocational training, without the fear of diluting exam preparation time!
(written 2014-09-15)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G502 - Well House Consultants - Business Practice [15] 90 to 10 or 80 to 20 rule - (2004-08-15)
[27] Sales technique - (2004-08-25)
[68] Get the strategy worked out and the tactics just fall into place. - (2004-09-30)
[77] Telephone systems - (2004-10-07)
[88] Getting the right level of trainer - (2004-10-14)
[95] Five red flags - (2004-10-21)
[108] A typical morning - (2004-11-03)
[121] Fair and Simple - (2004-11-17)
[125] Staff theft - (2004-11-21)
[129] Trawling our site to prevent student copying - (2004-11-24)
[137] Certification schemes - (2004-12-02)
[157] Automatic service upgrades - (2004-12-19)
[180] Skunk works - (2005-01-17)
[188] Pink elephant and appreciation - (2005-01-24)
[200] Tips for the top - (2005-02-03)
[211] Look after your staff and they'll look after you. AOL. - (2005-02-12)
[217] Use of time - (2005-02-16)
[226] Growing our systems - (2005-02-24)
[297] A reminder that the customer is King - (2005-05-01)
[321] Sales - the alternative close - (2005-05-23)
[399] simplicity hides real size - (2005-07-31)
[438] Fair system for travel and accommodation expenses - (2005-09-07)
[457] Do the work and take the risk - a PHP contract to avoid - (2005-10-06)
[467] Tell them three times - (2005-10-17)
[487] On line course booking - credit card protection - (2005-11-06)
[491] Being atypical is typical - (2005-11-10)
[536] Cancellations and penalties - (2005-12-21)
[626] Not just a pretty face to answer the phone. - (2006-02-26)
[652] Morning Post - (2006-03-20)
[664] Ruby course - oops - it's not happening - (2006-04-01)
[766] Discounts and approved supplier lists - (2006-06-17)
[808] Sales call - (2006-07-19)
[849] Staff Meeting - (2006-08-30)
[869] UNABLE TO ATTEND - (2006-09-16)
[883] Age discrimination law - (2006-10-01)
[906] A commitment we won't be making - (2006-10-27)
[1057] Selling by phone and Skype - our policy - (2007-01-30)
[1084] Writing terms and conditions for conferences and other events - (2007-02-17)
[1133] B-2-B Networking, 20th April. Useful for YOUR business? - (2007-04-03)
[1157] Speed Networking - a great evening and how we arranged it - (2007-04-21)
[1165] Extended Credit request - train in June and be paid in September - (2007-04-27)
[1243] Heavy duty hole punch - (2007-06-24)
[1260] An inspirational business talk from one of our prospective MPs - (2007-07-06)
[1263] 0800 043 8225 - a new phone number for Well House - (2007-07-10)
[1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
[1342] Google, wwmdirectory, Freshwater, ATP - new scam? - (2007-09-09)
[1373] New Month, New Quarter, New Laws - (2007-10-01)
[1394] Business to Business Networking - North and West Wilts / Melksham - (2007-10-17)
[1453] What makes our courses special? - (2007-12-02)
[1485] Copyright and theft of images, bandwidth and members. - (2007-12-26)
[1626] Early May - a short chance to regroup and improve - (2008-05-01)
[1713] Ways to accept credit cards - or not! - (2008-07-19)
[1855] Volunteer v Employee - a skewed balance? (FSB) - (2008-10-25)
[1913] Alastair Darling helps make paperwork and confusion - (2008-11-30)
[2044] Please Trouble me - (2009-02-16)
[2122] Commission Creep - (2009-04-08)
[2126] Weeding out old phone numbers - (2009-04-11)
[2161] Get it right ... if it goes wrong, it takes so much effort to sort out! - (2009-05-08)
[2187] Are we IITT (Institute of IT Training) members? - (2009-05-17)
[2190] How you are (re)presented at an exhibition - (2009-05-19)
[2283] Everyone is in the customer relations business - (2009-07-12)
[2331] Certification Revisted - Lua - (2009-08-09)
[2465] Melksham Town - asleep or awake? - (2009-10-21)
[2598] An excuse for making a sales call - (2010-01-26)
[2788] Cost of Sales - (2010-06-01)
[2821] Chancellor George Osborne inspires Perl Program - (2010-06-22)
[2936] The service that customers should receive - (2010-08-27)
[2966] Cheap Country Hotel in Melksham, Wiltshire? - (2010-09-21)
[3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
[3157] A new monopoly on the ferry to Northern Ireland - (2011-02-04)
[3333] Honesty and a friendly welcome goes a long way - (2011-06-25)
[3506] Cold call contacts - preference services and turning off spam sales approaches - (2011-11-03)
[3613] Keeping Business Local. But is that realistic? - (2012-02-13)
[3665] Will will smile? - (2012-03-22)
[3750] Matching opening hours to when customers can come in and buy - (2012-06-04)
[3755] Cruising on the Mersey Ferry? - (2012-06-07)
[4107] Snog, Marry, Avoid - (2013-05-31)
[4415] Buffet review - taking the price into account - (2015-02-05)
[4520] No cold sales calls please - but delighted to hear from others! - (2015-09-29)
Some other Articles
Lua courses - an updatePolishing the Perl courses - updated trainingA longer Python ... training courseA bright new gem - updated Ruby trainingCertificationThe Horse is back!Train Online article - ACoRP / TransWilts introductionNational Express replaced by train and by Megabus from Chippenham to LondonIt may be cheaper to buy in bulkSome questions on how our Community Rail Partnership works