At long last someone does certification for Drupal.
Acquia certification for Drupal
I’m proud to share that Acquia announced its certification program today. You can now get “Acquia certified” in Drupal development, something I’m pretty excited about.
This is something I’ve been hoping to see in the community. While there have been other experiments around certification, we as a community have lacked a way to ensure professional standards across Drupal. Over the years, I’ve heard the demand coming from partners and clients who need a way to evaluate the skills of people on their teams. More and more, that demand has drowned out any perceived criticisms of a certification for Drupal.
A good certification is not just a rubber stamp, but a way for people to evaluate their own abilities, and make plans for improving their knowledge. In some countries, certification is really important to create a career path (something I learned when visiting India). For these reasons, I feel Drupal’s growth and development has been hindered without a formal certification in place.
[From Acquia certification for Drupal | Dries Buytaert]
But the reactions from the Open Source community have been quite mixed – as the closest you have really managed to get so far is to be a contributor to the core project (or a module of course).
But then again this is the really good part of the open source movement, you get quick reactions and in among these there is always some thought through arguments.
My take is that it is a good thing for certain countries and for developers starting out – but of considerably less use for seasoned Drupal developers.
Let’s see how it takes off!
Congratulations to Aquia!
