BlackBerry supporters now certifiable

Stuart Corner
Friday, 02 May 2008 15:52

IT Industry - Strategy

Research In Motion (RIM) has launched a worldwide programme to certify the skills of IT professionals and service providers who sell and support BlackBerry push email services, devices and BlackBerry based mobile applications.

The program has been designed for IT professionals and consultants, wireless carriers and other BlackBerry partners and will be available in 135 countries. According to RIM, the program "is intended to provide an empirical means of measuring and validating the real world skills and knowledge used in planning, administering and supporting BlackBerry product deployments."

RIM is working with two specialists in certification testing: Alpine Testing Solutions is developing and designing the certification exams; Prometric is providing a comprehensive suite of services, including test development, test delivery and data management capabilities to enable the BlackBerry Certification Program to be offered as a controlled, proctored testing service at over 4700 test centres in the 135 countries.

Certification will be offered in three areas: technical certifications for IT professionals and consultants who want to establish their credentials as administrators, implementers and supporters of BlackBerry solutions; certifications for professionals in the IT industry who want to prove their advanced knowledge in the use of BlackBerry technology; and certifications for corporate developers to validate their skills in the development of mobile applications for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Certifications planned for availability in 2008 include: BlackBerry Certified System Administrator - for technical professionals who install, configure and manage the BlackBerry Enterprise server - available May 13; BlackBerry Certified Server Support Specialist - for technical specialists supporting BlackBerry Enterprise Server and its associated components - available late 2008; BlackBerry Certified Support Specialist - for specialists who support BlackBerry smartphone users in a BlackBerry Internet Service or BlackBerry Enterprise Server environment - available late 2008; BlackBerry Certified Solution Designer - for technical professionals who provide pre- and post-sales technical consulting services to organisations that have deployed the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution - available late 2008

Additional certifications for individuals planned to be available in 2009 will include: BlackBerry Certified Enterprise Application Developer; BlackBerry Certified Trainer; BlackBerry Sales Expert and BlackBerry Expert User. Organisational certifications planned for 2009 include BlackBerry Certified Reseller and BlackBerry Certified Training Centre.