I attended the April 10th webcast What is new in SAP Certification provided by susan.martin , SAP. Part 1 covers benefits of certification, discussed in the first part of the webcast.
Here is the webcast abstract:
SAP certification is the only authorized accreditation of SAP-related expertise in the industry. With this accreditation, all our customers, partners and consultants gain recognition for their certified resources, along with industry-wide credibility.
Please join this webinar to find out more about the SAP Global Certification Program and how the Certification & Enablement Influence Council is driving the way forward with the program.
Benefits of Certification
Sue started the webcast by saying that SAP Certification is undergoing a transformation.
Figure 1: Source: SAP
Figure 1 shows SAP’s opinion on certification
A sign of commitment to customers for ensuring quality in rapidly changing markets. SAP wants SAP certification to give a reliable customer benchmark to make decisions.
You can see SCN discussions and social media that certification is not ultimate job finder and this is a valid point, says Sue. Certification is one part of it.
Certification helps bring customer project success, mitigating success, clear measurement across organization of current skill set.
It should be a measure of employability, further engagements
Figure 2: Source: SAP
Figure 2 shows that a changing workforce requires certification
Rate of technological advances, mobility, cloud, Hana and need a way to ensure skillsets are there.
Sue said the customer needs to rely on a global certification and can work anywhere across the world.
SAP consulting workforce has is 100% certified in a relevant area of certification and this lead to changes in certification.
SAP has added an additional level for those working in an area for 4 years or longer – the professional certification, a reinforcement of skill development and quality
Figure 3: Source: SAP
Figure 3 shows the analysts’ view of the market.
Figure 4: Source: SAP
Sue indicated that having a high proportion of the work force certified provides tangible improvement and gains
SAP Global Certification started in the mid-90s as shown in Figure 4, and it provides an overview of the program.
Today there are 130 exams and translated into core languages.
Over 350K people certified.
SAP looks at how move delivery channels forward including the Pearson Vue channel.
In 2012 they had over a 30% year over year growth.
Figure 5: Source: SAP
Pyramid in Figure 5 shows 2 levels. Sue said they received feedback that Associate is a solid level. The Associate level means first level project experience
Professional is for advanced level
Sue said they moved to more of a role-based certification including a job-task analysis.
Figure 6: Source: SAP
Figure 6 shows the scale of the project; a scalable enablement program.
When they started the Certification & Enablement Influence Council they noticed a lack of awareness of training options, including virtual training.
Figure 6 shows 300K people trained annually, 29K to partners, 55K for e-learning, especially in APJ.
Figure 7: Source: SAP
Figure 7 covers addressing your needs in business
440 events are given each week through a cloud infrastructure.
Figure 8: Source: SAP
Figure 8 shows customer success stories
What is SAP doing to change certification program? Read part 2 here.