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Subject:Certification? And what does that prove? From:barryk -at- MDHOST -dot- CSE -dot- TEK -dot- COM Date:Wed, 11 Jun 1997 15:02:08 -0700
I too have strong opinions about certification.
Think back to the early 80's.
A group of dither heads sat before a Senate subcommittee and cried:
"If we do not make all software engineers get certified, we will have
hackers writing all of the software!"
"It is a matter of National Security!" they added for emphasis.
"But who will certify them?" the bloated Senator's asked.
"Oh, we will!, and for only $1,500 each!" the dither heads cried.
______
Certification is also useful when you need to validate yourself.
Let me explain:
You send for Sally Struther's "Be a Civil Engineer in Six Weeks"
corespondence course. Now you are qualified to stand in knee deep mud and
hold a reflective stick.
But if you want to be the person in ankle deep mud writing down the
numbers from the digital theodalite, you need certification!
Ahh, Validation!
"This hear piece o' paper says I is certified!"
In the past I have worked with poorly educated electronic
technicians that had passed a "Certified Electronic Technician" exam.
What were they "certified" to do?, I alway wondered.
Certification is fine, but it in NO way indicates quality, and therefore
in NO way can insure that just because a person is "certified", they can
in fact do the job they are "certified" for.
Barry Kieffer
Technical Writer
(Un-Certified)
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