Why not tie exams to employment?
Here’s an idea worth considering: Currently in the IT world, multiple-choice and practicum-based exams are used to authenticate your skills, give you something to put on your resume and allow your employer to advertise that they have a certain number of certified administrators/technicians/etc.
It seems to me that here’s an opportunity for employers to incorporate practicum-based exams into the actual hiring process, and for testing centers to fulfill a purpose beyond what they currently do.
Imagine that the hiring choices at Acme have been narrowed down to three equally qualified applicants. All three have the same certifications, the same skills, and the same number of years working with Linux. To make the hiring decision easier — to really determine which of the three is the standout — why not send all of them to a neutral testing center where they take a hands-on, one-hour lab that asks them to perform some configuration/administration tasks?
In order for this to work, however, testing centers would need to refocus and incorporate exams from other parties that grade more than just basic questions. Centers would also need to make real equipment available — not just those old machines they took out of the classroom a few years ago and now use to deliver Vue/Prometric exams.
This may seem like a lot to ask. But anything that can help keep employers from making bad hiring decisions is well worth the cost of pursuing — and that’s likely a cost the Acmes of the world are more than willing to bear.
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