Microsoft has surprised quite a few people by announcing that it is pulling the plug on its Masters level certification exams. According to the company, the certification will no longer be offered after October 1, 2013.
The key reason behind pulling the plug on its Master level certification program is simply that Microsoft had hoped that thousands would flock to the offering whereas only hundreds show up each year to take the exam. In other words, the company is disappointed with the response of the users.
The exact program which will be retired as a result of this announcement include Microsoft Certified Master (MCM), Microsoft Certified Solutions Master (MCSM) and Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA). Whereas Microsoft hasn’t officially explained why this decision is being taken, the Senior Director of Microsoft Learning at the firm, Tim Sneath, has penned down a quick post elaborating on the issue.
According to him, “The truth is, for as successful as the program is for those who are in it, it reaches only a tiny proportion of the overall community. Only a few hundred people have attained the certification in the last few years, far fewer than we would have hoped. We wanted to create a certification that many would aspire to and that would be the ultimate peak of the Microsoft Certified program, but with only ~0.08% of all MCSE-certified individuals being in the program across all programs, it just hasn’t gained the traction we hoped for.”
However, the act of pulling the plug on these programs doesn’t mean that Microsoft is halting the effort. Rather, we are told, the company will reevaluate the needs of the industry and then start offering some new, better certification in light of that.
Courtesy: ZDNet
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