Certification and/or Education/Outreach

Hi,

I would like to come back on the debate that Bryce has started. It's 
not an easy topic and I would like to add another dimension to it.

* Certification            (Repressive)
* Education and Outreach   (Positive)

As I have studied the topics of “certification at W3C” for the whole 
year 2003 and part of 2004. I have a few ideas and comments, but I 
would love first to hear the opinions of people on the list to not 
close the debate too early by giving my orientation.

Bryce's message address only “Education certification” and in the 
particular context of Web developer (Front end or back end). In the 
discussion don't forget that there is what we could call "classes of 
products" for certification.

	- Services: Web agency, Consulting, Web design Process, Software 
development
	- People: Web developer (Front end, back end), software developer 
using Web tech
	- Education materials: University curriculum, books, manual, articles, 
etc.
	- Products: validator, parsers, authoring tools, user agents, bots, 
proxy, etc.


Le 19 nov. 2004, à 20:00, Bryce Fields a écrit :
> I believe that one of the best moves that the W3C can make to promote
> and encourage best web practices and the embracing of W3C
> recommendations is to offer certifications.  Right now, the average
> web developer has no real incentive to increase their learning curve
> when it comes to the W3C specs and recommendations.  "I don't have
> time to learn that 'new stuff' now" is a familiar refrain I hear from
> colleagues, who all the while are studying furiously for the latest
> esoteric MS certification.

==> Topic: Certification as a stick to learn the technology.


> The reason they make time for THAT learning curve is that there's a
> financial incentive in it for them.  I could see something like
> "Certified W3C Web Developer", etc. as having that same kind of
> incentive.  Who would you hire when presented w/ a resume w/ a W3C
> certification and one that's not?  And if you can drive people to at
> least learn how work with W3C technologies, I have enough faith in
> those technologies that once they are learned, they'll be used.

==> Topic: Certification for people as a competitive advantage on the 
employment market.
==> Topic: Certification for people as a way to select the good 
candidate.
==> Topic: Certification as a guarantee that people will use the 
technology correctly once they are certified.

Received on Tuesday, 23 November 2004 13:16:40 UTC