One of the meanings of ‘to be certified’, says the dictionary, is to be officially declared insane. Small wonder that the layman looks askance at statements such as “certified professionals will dominate hiring in the IT sector in 2016 as compared to those who have not done any course on emerging technologies”.

But should we declare such certified professionals insane, simply on the basis of their fondness for collecting pieces of paper? Does it help them to collect Rs 1,000 notes also? Does the two-day certification course that peer-to-peer real estate startup PropKaro has recently launched along with the Association of Certified Realtors of India and the National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco) mean something more than 48 hours of learning how to sell one BHK flats to flats (or squares)? But don’t knock PropKaro; real estate brokers need to get real.

“The certificate will increase one's status in a market dominated by fly-by-night operators and unscrupulous practitioners, operating in a climate of distrust,” says Naredco. According to them, the brokerage market in India is around Rs 25,000 crore annually.

Certifications are everywhere. Want to train dogs? Get your certification from the Council for Professional Dog Trainers. That’s a US body, but you will find Indian trainers claiming to have cleared such courses too. 

Or you could go to Karen Pryor Academy. Every dog has his day there, but they don’t reign alone. Says Pryor: “Enrol in our online Canine Freestyle course to learn how to create show-stopping freestyle routines.”

Do cats and dogs get your goat? Aspire for a bigger canvas. Says the Ohio-based Rustic Pathways: “Learn about elephant conservation and become a certified elephant handler on this one-week programme. Bond with your mahout, a Thai elephant keeper, as you bathe, feed, and care for your elephant throughout the week. Ride into the jungle for an overnight camp and volunteer at the elephant hospital.” 

The would-be certified elephant handlers come from the US; they acquire their certificates and tricks of the trade in places like India and Thailand. While on the subject, the Association of Zoos & Aquariums in Washington has a certification course titled the Principles of Elephant Management I. Not enough? There is a Principles of Elephant Management II. Scholarships are available.

Pink Elephant, apparently a close cousin, is however a pachyderm born from a different palette; it is “an international knowledge leader in the field of business innovation and business change with advisory and IT services”. Despite India’s claim to fame in both IT and elephants, the company does not have a presence here.
Moving on, Python programming is defined as “an open-source general-purpose interpreted programming language”. Python is a popular language. It has certification courses at the University of Washington, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

In this country, it is available at various places, including Dancing Bison Enterprises. Indians, like Harry Potter, know their Parseltongue.

It’s in information technology — and other hitech industries — that certification is really important. The rate of change is fast. Cobra (2006) provides an alternative to Python (1991). If Java (1995) isn’t your cup of Tea (1997), try CoffeeScript (2009; “CoffeeScript is a programming language that transcompiles to JavaScript. It adds syntactic sugar inspired by Python.”) It’s remarkable how it all hangs together: “For the fourth year in a row, Python retains its No 1 dominance followed by Java.” 

In the IT industry, two sorts of people seek certification: freshers and professionals who want to upgrade skills. Points out the Foote Partners 2015 IT Skills & Certifications Pay Index: “Incorporating skills premiums in an employer’s compensation programme has gained much popularity in recent years. Why? Because it is an effective solution to the problem of job titles that don't match what people actually do. These days it is common to find Java, Python, Ruby on Rails, SAP and even COBOL specialists all with Programmer or Developer titles.”

It was so much easier in the early days — the 1950s —  when US Navy rear admiral Grace Hopper, who inspired COBOL, earned a designation close to what she actually did; she was known as the world’s first “debugger” because she got a computer ticking again by literally removing a moth from its innards. 

CERTIFIED?

The top five IT certifications of 2016 

• Virtualisation
• Cloud
• Security
• Data Sciences
• Internet of Things

Source: www.gizmodo.in