VMware Certification Changes

Great news from VMware (by Broadcom) this month as they have announced that an official training course is no longer a pre-requisite for becoming a VMware Certified Professional (VCP). Prior to the 6th May 2024 learners were required to sit a multi-day official course, costing thousands of pounds to purchase.

Whilst there is still great value in the course, it lowers the financial barrier for becoming VMware certified. Yes, the exam is still $250, but that’s much easier for an individual to self-fund than the four-figure course costs, or for a SMB without a huge training budget or enterprise licensing vouchers to support. The monetary hit is also reduced for existing professionals with lapsed credentials to get recertified. If you have an older certification (a VCP 6 for example) then the only way to update that prior to this announcement was to pay out for another official course and the exam.

For those who learn better by other methods than classroom teaching (in-person or online) this is good news too. Self-paced study, and alternative materials can now support you all the way to the qualification. Those virtual infrastructure admins out there who have learnt “on the job” can now jump straight into the exam, perhaps with only a little brushing up on their skills for the test.

The certification is still just as tough so there’s no devaluing of the qualification by the shift to this model, and the option of a formal classroom course is still available to those who want it. VMware will highlight this by issuing a different badge to those taking the exam-only route, but a VCP is still a VCP.

New versions of current certification badges will differentiate between individuals who obtained certification through a course and/or other prerequisite certification and exam program and those who achieved certification solely through an exam….

More information can be found in the announcement on blogs.vmware.com