Cisco and Pearson VUE partner to expand access to Cisco certification and safeguard integrity of global exams
We're pleased to announce that Pearson VUE will be the single vendor of Cisco® certification exams worldwide, effective August 1, 2007. We’re very excited about this change, and we’re confident that as a valued Cisco customer, you’ll benefit from the new level of security, global access, and innovative technology that will now be available through this collaboration. Cisco and Pearson VUE are partnering to create a new standard for individual information technology certifications and specialization exams, elevating them to the level of prestigious professional certification and licensure programs. As a result of this change, all individual Cisco technical certification exams for Cisco customers and partners will need to be scheduled through Pearson VUE. July 31, 2007, is the last date to take a Cisco exam through Prometric.
As global demand increases for individual Cisco certifications, it is critical that we improve and make our global certification systems more agile. Hence, we need to scale and optimize our test delivery—that is, the administration of Cisco certifications such as Cisco CCNA® and CCIE®. Traditionally, Cisco has used two core test delivery partners worldwide to deliver our individual certification exams: Pearson VUE and Prometric. However, after significant research, Pearson VUE was chosen as Cisco’s single testing partner. Pearson VUE was selected for the following reasons:
• Unparalleled global reach
• Forward-thinking policies and vision of technical resource recruitment
• Ability to scale to new countries with new requirements
• Ability to meet forecasted demands
• Ability to deliver on additional investments to secure Cisco’s test delivery technology
Our expectation is that shifting to a primary vendor strategy worldwide will allow us to advance test security through the deployment of advanced biometric technologies. Having a primary vendor will also facilitate the rapid localization of exams around the world, and allow for increased certification scalability and coverage.
Pearson VUE has more than 4000 test centers in 162 countries worldwide. If you previously utilized a Prometric testing center to take Cisco certifications, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with your local Pearson VUE testing center: Test Center Locator.
We’ve also tried to anticipate as many of your questions as possible and have included detailed information on our Certifications Online Support tool. These FAQs will be updated regularly as new information and developments are announced. If you have questions that are not addressed, please contact the Cisco Certification Online Support Team. If you would like additional information about taking a Cisco test at Pearson VUE, you will find a complete listing of customer service phone numbers at the Pearson VUE Website.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Cisco Career Certifications
Thursday, July 12, 2007
VUE as sole testing center of Cisco
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this is insane, to outsource such a big task to an unreliable vendor. I just grabbed this from the pearson VUE website, I was trying to schedule a test:
ReplyDeleteSPECIAL NOTICE:
This website is scheduled to undergo routine maintenance on 18 October from Saturday, 6:00 p.m. CT-Sunday, 6:00 a.m. CT. During this time, you will not be able to schedule, reschedule or cancel test appointments. We apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
12 Hours Downtime? INSANE. You don't see that much downtime on bakery websites and you see it on the sole cisco certification exams provider? INSANE
Yeah, a 12 hour downtime is frustrating, especially if it goes against your plans.
ReplyDeleteStill, extensively long downtimes are very few and far between. Usually once every two years or more.
Now, unless these long downtimes occur at, say, once a week, then it's a real problem and there's definitely something that should be done about it.