As Demand for Certifications Continues to Grow, Performance-based Exams Take the Lead in Increasing Certification Value

By September 18, 2017News, Trends
Experiential Testing

Experiential testing a worthy investment for organizations that look for ways to differentiate by increasing fidelity

The message is loud and clear “certification matters,” as 89 percent of hiring managers struggle to find certified talent.  On the flip side, 86 percent of people that are certified claim certification has advanced their career and their pay. New data from the IT job board Dice, as published in the August 2017 Linux Foundation Job Report[1], confirms that even more hiring managers are seeking applicants with certifications to fill in-demand roles. Experiential Testing is big. 

Not only are certifications important, but so is the type of certification. At TrueAbility we often tout the fact that not all certifications are created equal. We base this on how many education objectives an exam captures, if the exam is prone to test breach (cheating) and if the test-taker can demonstrate real skills.

When offering a certification, designing it to include test items that prove not only what an individual “knows”, but what they can “do”, provides the highest value certification by capturing six of six educational objectives in Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. As an added bonus, the opportunity to cheat is eliminated when a test candidate must prove their skills in a real environment.

While the industry has faced numerous challenges in implementing high-fidelity, experiential, Performance-based certifications over the last decade TrueAbility has developed technology that addresses these major obstacles, such as:

  1. Scaling – exams that don’t take advantage of technology and automation will struggle to grow.
  2. Geographic limitations – depending on physical testing centers limits the number of people able to take the exam.
  3. Too many vendors – previously in order to offer a complete performance-based certification, organizations are stuck sourcing parts of the solution to a myriad of solution providers.
  4. Perception that Performance-based is cost prohibitive – perhaps true ten years ago, but technology has caught up and switching to the right performance-based solution might now increase revenue and be a cost savings. Now Experiential Testing is the way to go! 

The companies that are willing to overcome these obstacles are rewarded with offering one of the most esteemed certifications in the industry that best matches skills and abilities to the exact work functions of the 21st century. Here are some examples of companies who recognize the value of performance-based certification and have adapted their certification programs:

Cloudera
Google
Chef Software
Red Hat
Cisco
SUSE
National Instruments
Intuit QuickBooks

Exams built with TrueAbility can leverage performance-based scenarios and traditional objective test items to provide a comprehensive measure of a candidate’s genuine knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). With growing emphasis year-over-year on certifications to prove ability, we at TrueAbility are continuously innovating to ensure our clients are delivering an unparalleled exam experience in experiential testing. Our automation makes scaling exams effortless, so your teams can focus on content. We remove the hassles involved in working with multiple vendors by providing a unified experience, ensuring your administration of the exam is as seamless as the end-user’s experience taking the exam.

 


[1] About the summer 2017 study, Dice and The Linux Foundation surveyed both hiring managers and open source professionals from various types of organizations about their jobs needs and preferences. There were nearly 300 responses from companies, primarily in North America that have hired in the past year. Over 1,800 experienced open source professionals responded to a survey. Experiential Testing

 

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Interested in discussing how TrueAbility can increase your exam’s fidelity and make it stand out? Contact us today!