Red Hat Certification – The Program Changes
The professional certification program of Red Hat takes a vivid change from May 15 2014. The new implementation is lively, as there is more flexibility in the Certificates one might choose to earn towards being a Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA). The changes will also differentiate Red Hat certified professionals who are current.
Red Hat Certified Security Specialist (RHCSS) and Red Hat Certified Datacenter Specialist (RHCDS) are being phased out with the release of RHEL 7, but the more widely-known Red Hat Certified Architect (RHCA) program is let open providing more ways to earn that credential.
Some Main Points –
1. Effective May 15, 2014 Red Hat has lifted the requirement that one must be a current Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) to take EX401, EX413, EX436, and EX442.
2. RHCA can be acquired by earning RHCE plus ANY FIVE of the Red Hat Certificates of Expertise or certifications.
3. If someone earns RHCA and subsequently earns additional Certificates of Expertise beyond the five required, Red Hat will acknowledge higher levels of accomplishment. For example, if someone earned RHCA and then earned two more eligible Certificates of Expertise, the verification page would report that the individual was an RHCA Level II.
4. Individual Red Hat Certificates of Expertise will begin being designated as current or non-current. Red Hat Certificates of Expertise earned on or after October 1, 2014 will be considered current for three (3) years from the date they are earned. Red Hat Certificates of Expertise earned before October 1, 2014 will be considered current until October 1, 2017.
5. RHCE‘s on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and have also earned RHCSS or RHCDS will continue to hold these credentials until three (3) years after the date the last required Red Hat Certificate of Expertise was earned. It will not be possible to re-certify as RHCSS or RHCDS but Red Hat Certificates of Expertise can be applied towards RHCA.
6. These new requirements will not be in effect on the Verification page until October 1, 2014 but will be applied retroactively. This means that all existing RHCA‘s will continue to be RHCA, although some will also be higher-level RHCA‘s. It also means that some people will become RHCA based on credentials they already have because some credentials apply towards RHCA that did not apply before.
7. If an RHCE earns an eligible Red Hat Certificate of Expertise the RHCSA and RHCE will be current for three (3) years from the date the Certificate of Expertise was earned. All Red Hat Certificates of Expertise are eligible EXCEPT the JBoss developer focused Certificates.
The above changes and its implementation once again directs us to underline the fact that “Red Hat continues to ensure the value and stature of credentials that its community of highly qualified Red Hat certified professionals has earned over time”.
Red Hat however, is reducing the number of titles in its professional certification in order to make the program simpler to understand for hiring managers, who seek Red Hat certified candidates. Being a critic, these changes would definitely make things easy for many certification aspirants, however would be a little hard to digest for some. Well then, Red Hat always come up the best in the jar. So yes, move on!
The following link details the changes in certification program –
Red Hat Certification Program Changes 2014 Overview Brochure
