However when new versions of Umbraco are released, and the approach is radically different to the version of Umbraco you became certified on, then it's unhelpful to describe developers as still being 'certified' Umbraco professionals. In these circumstances Umbraco offer an online bridging course to renew your certification with the changes you need to be aware of.
There is usually a grace period of between 3-6 months to enable you to take the bridging course, eg it doesn't happen overnight.
The only time this has actually happened was in March 2017 when Umbraco 4 certifications were announced as 'end of life'
You can see the announcement was in September 2016
There is no confirmed announcement on Umbraco 8 release, and whether any bridging course will be required to keep certification, it is more likely though that Umbraco 6 certifications will become end of life first!
The main thing though is the courses are worth attending in their own right, and you will pick up things that help you work with Umbraco regardless of the certification!
The bridging courses don't look too bad in terms of cost so that looks good.
With version 7 having been out a while, its tricky to decide whether to part with 2800 euros then find the new version is released and your certification expires in 6 months...
Can any of the other courses be done online do you know?
(whilst nothing is set in stone, I'd remark that history shows that whilst Umbraco do receive a revenue stream from people undertaking training, their heart is not in a ruthless marketing vein of new version = expired certification, the only time the certification has expired in the past was the situation mentioned above, when it was felt that the older certification focussing on XSLT and techniques, were out of date compared to how much Umbraco had changed between version 4 and version 7 over four years! - Looking at the work planned for Umbraco 8, it is an opportunity to make breaking changes but the core concepts of Umbraco are unlikely to change, so in my personal opinion, I extremely doubt your V7 certification would expire for sometime yet - but also, in the meantime, the courses are great, and you'll learn some useful stuff that will pay in time back the cost of attending regardless of certification)
As Marc says, we only discontinue certifications when there is a reason to, not because a new shiny version number is pushed - in the case of the V4 certifications, it was because the bigger underlying change from webforms to mvc that made these certifications obsolete.
There will always be something better just around the corner, in this case Version 8, but after that, Version 9 will soon come, and even between those 2 versions there will be tons of features and UI enhancements that we continue to add to the training.
So, you actually miss out the most by choosing to not attending as quickly as possible. Training gives you value in your day to day work, by making you a better developer, not by giving you a badge and a shiny new version number.
So if you want maximum value from training, attend as early in your Umbraco career as possible, and avoid looking back at years of wasting time in building sites the wrong way or re-inventing the wheel because you didn't know that Umbraco actually did it out of the box :)
Quick question on certification
With the professional certification (which I've yet to do), how does it expire?
Is it when a there's a major new release?
How do you keep your certification valid?
Thanks
Hi Flash
You are certified for the version of Umbraco that you take the certification on, and listed as such on Umbraco.com:
https://umbraco.com/partners/find-a-certified-developer/
So your listing remains valid for that version.
However when new versions of Umbraco are released, and the approach is radically different to the version of Umbraco you became certified on, then it's unhelpful to describe developers as still being 'certified' Umbraco professionals. In these circumstances Umbraco offer an online bridging course to renew your certification with the changes you need to be aware of.
There is usually a grace period of between 3-6 months to enable you to take the bridging course, eg it doesn't happen overnight.
The only time this has actually happened was in March 2017 when Umbraco 4 certifications were announced as 'end of life'
You can see the announcement was in September 2016
https://umbraco.com/blog/umbraco-4-certifications-end-of-life/
eg 4 years on from when those courses were run.
There is no confirmed announcement on Umbraco 8 release, and whether any bridging course will be required to keep certification, it is more likely though that Umbraco 6 certifications will become end of life first!
The main thing though is the courses are worth attending in their own right, and you will pick up things that help you work with Umbraco regardless of the certification!
regards
Marc
Thanks Marc.
The bridging courses don't look too bad in terms of cost so that looks good.
With version 7 having been out a while, its tricky to decide whether to part with 2800 euros then find the new version is released and your certification expires in 6 months...
Can any of the other courses be done online do you know?
as if by magic...
https://umbraco.com/blog/taking-fundamentals-online/
(whilst nothing is set in stone, I'd remark that history shows that whilst Umbraco do receive a revenue stream from people undertaking training, their heart is not in a ruthless marketing vein of new version = expired certification, the only time the certification has expired in the past was the situation mentioned above, when it was felt that the older certification focussing on XSLT and techniques, were out of date compared to how much Umbraco had changed between version 4 and version 7 over four years! - Looking at the work planned for Umbraco 8, it is an opportunity to make breaking changes but the core concepts of Umbraco are unlikely to change, so in my personal opinion, I extremely doubt your V7 certification would expire for sometime yet - but also, in the meantime, the courses are great, and you'll learn some useful stuff that will pay in time back the cost of attending regardless of certification)
Hi Flash
As Marc says, we only discontinue certifications when there is a reason to, not because a new shiny version number is pushed - in the case of the V4 certifications, it was because the bigger underlying change from webforms to mvc that made these certifications obsolete.
There will always be something better just around the corner, in this case Version 8, but after that, Version 9 will soon come, and even between those 2 versions there will be tons of features and UI enhancements that we continue to add to the training.
So, you actually miss out the most by choosing to not attending as quickly as possible. Training gives you value in your day to day work, by making you a better developer, not by giving you a badge and a shiny new version number.
So if you want maximum value from training, attend as early in your Umbraco career as possible, and avoid looking back at years of wasting time in building sites the wrong way or re-inventing the wheel because you didn't know that Umbraco actually did it out of the box :)
/Per
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