TYPO3 certification - 24/7 all over the world!

In 2008 the very first TYPO3 CMS Integrator certification exam took place in Munich, Germany. Over the last four years certification exams were held in 17 countries with attendees from 27 countries. Meanwhile we have over <link http: certification.typo3.org certified typo3>1150 certified TYPO3 integrators worldwide. It is fair to say that the TYPO3 certification program was a huge success with both professionals and companies valuing the quality assurance a certification offers.

Certification in Australia? Possible. But difficult. Until now!

One shortcoming of the TYPO3 certification program was that it was not equally available around the globe in the past. The TYPO3 certification program was too small to be interesting for big test infrastructure providers as Pearson VUE or Prometric - at first. That is why the certification team had to individually set up paper based exams in various locations (like universities or business hotels) which they first had to look for. Then a proctor from the TYPO3 Association had to travel there to take the exam. Sometimes - as in Australia - the certification team had to find a trustworthy third party to proctor the exam.

That made it quite difficult to set up exams in non-European areas which was unfair concerning equal chances for everyone everywhere wanting to get certified. It also made it close to impossible to offer exams frequently in areas with less demand like Croatia or Hungary because it would not have been economically viable to set up an exam for two or three people only.

Snail mail, low manpower, queueing times - call it “local optimum”

After the test paper exams were then sent to the Zurich headquarter in Switzerland for processing. Exams were evaluated by hand. Then attendees were informed whether they had passed or not. That took up to 10 weeks sometimes when workload was high and/or manpower was low. To sum it up: The whole process worked fine so far, as the numbers mentioned above illustrate. But at the end of the day it was sometimes cumbersome as well as slow and costly concerning manpower.

TYPO3 certification whenever wherever - starting 2013

So in the long term this process would not suit an ever growing TYPO3 universe. And luckily there were a couple of factors that made it possible to revisit the idea of having exams organized by a test infrastructure provider - namely Pearson VUE:

• The success of the certification program showed that there is appreciation and demand for that kind of certification.
• Extensive negotiations between the <link http: typo3.org teams certification>TYPO3 Certification Team and <link http: www.pearsonvue.com>Pearson VUE led to a schema suitable and satisfying for both parties.
• The upcoming TYPO3 developer certification will hopefully give the certification program another boost.

As a result the certification team will successfully have implemented a fully automated, worldwide available TYPO3 certification program by the end of the year of 2012. This is a huge step for the TYPO3 certification program: <link http: www.pearsonvue.com>Pearson VUE will host TYPO3 certifications with their test infrastructure beginning January 2013.

What does that mean for you?

As of 2013 you will be able to take a TYPO3 certification exam in any of the <link http: www.pearsonvue.com vtclocator vue test>test centers Pearson VUE is operating all over the world whenever you want!

The process will be simple: You pay for the exam on the <link http: www.pearsonvue.com reg_guide schedule on pearson vue website by credit>Pearson VUE website by credit card. After that you can check out a location near you and register for a certification exam. If you are a <link http: association.typo3.org>TYPO3 Association member, you can apply for a discount voucher (to pay 150 Euro instead of 200): As a Bronze member (i.e. personal membership) you get one non-transferable voucher per year, a Silver member gets three, Gold members 10 and Platinum members get 20 vouchers per year for their employees.

Sadly the change also means that the TYPO3 Certification Team will not be able to offer paper based exams at events like conferences or barcamps any longer. Communities like <link http: www.lpi.org lpi>LPI or <link http: www.bsdcertification.org bsd>BSD do that, but it is quite expensive both concerning money and manpower, which is why the certification team had to decide against it.

So as of 2013 the process for taking a TYPO3 certification exam will look like this for you:

• You visit the <link http: certification.typo3.org certification>TYPO3 certification website for news, preparation tips etc.
• If you or your company are a TYPO3 Association member, you apply for a personal discount voucher at <link certification>certification@typo3.org.
• You choose a <link http: www.pearsonvue.com vtclocator for a pearson vue test venue near>Pearson VUE test venue near you.
• You register for the exam on the Pearson VUE website.
• You pay for the exam on the Pearson VUE website.
• You take the exam in a test center of your choosing.
• You immediately get your result after taking the exam.
• If you do not want your name <link http: certification.typo3.org of certified typo3>listed on the certification website, you mail that information to <link certification>certification@typo3.org.

This applies to both the Certified TYPO3 CMS Integrator exam and the upcoming Certified TYPO3 CMS Developer exam planned for late 2013. There will be more news about this developer exam mid 2013, so stay tuned. Even better: If you want to help the certification team in developing and implementing the developer certification program, do not hesitate to contact them.