SAP Mentor Monday SAP Certification Webinar Replay

On Monday we had an update on SAP Certification from Susan Martin who is the SAP Global Certification Director.  Many of the slides Sue covered were discussed What is new in SAP HANA Certification – SAP Webcast

For those who missed, here is the replay link:

https://sap.na.pgiconnect.com/p78178567/

Sue gave a big announcement that on Monday SAP Crowdsourced Certification Initiative Launched – crowd sourcing for certification exam questions and rewards.  A credential manager to verify those who have passed certification is coming.  A quote from Jon Reed “certficiation verification is a long-requested community issue, will help with combating consulting fraud, glad to see it”.  A question from an attendee was how will credential manager handle credentials over the years (those with historical credentials)?  Sue said it will handle credentials that are up to date so normally the last 3 versions of the exam

Jon also asked John Appleby to discuss his experience with SAP HANA professional certification.  HANA Distinguished Engineers were invited to take the SAP HANA professional certification exam. It was John’s first certification in 12 years.  John said that unless you worked with SAP HANA you would’ve struggled to pass the exam and this was good.  The test covered was on the up-to-date and on the current version.  He said there was a scenario-based question and he felt this was the highest quality.  John felt that multiple choice exams were not the highest quality.  Listen to the replay to hear John offer more suggestions for improvement.

Sue said they were looking at profiling at tasks to improve the questions and they would look scenarios for testing.  Additionally they would look at providing a system for the test.  Sue felt crowd sourcing would also add to the improvement of the exam.

John also raised the Open SAP HANA course and how education is changing.

Mary Bazemore (she goes by Molly) stated in the chat ” our key objective is to drive continuous learning and skill development, so we are taking away many barriers to access education.”   She also said “If we look at how many people in our ecosystem get professionally trained, we are disappointed with the results. so the objective is to drive volume in participation, which allows us to move to other financial models.  key is effective social learning, quality online content, and responsiveness to community needs.  We think we have a good plan on how to accomplish this, and will share with the Certification Enablement Influence Council this week.” 

Molly also said “we can offer the best trainers live, as well as recorded.  our intent is to allow the communities to determine requirements, as well as SAP experts who are aware of the next area that requires some focus, and change the means in which that expertise is brought to market.”  She said core measurement is on participation, not revenue.  She said they put so much effort in content.  They want to see participation increase in structured learning yet customers continue to experience issues in their products.  They are looking to removing barriers.

She said Learning Hub had a minimum buy of 20 per company but now that has been removed so an individual can buy.   This is part of removing the barriers.

Mark asked Molly about Open SAP and she it does not provide detailed skills. 

Continuing the discussion, what is a platinum certified consultant?  Find out by listening to the replay.

Join next Monday on 7/22 for the next Mentor Monday webcast: The Process Black Box – OpInt Shines a light inside