June 18, 2020
The value of Adobe certification: survey results are in!
96% of respondents recommend Adobe certification. Personal and professional benefits cited as top reasons.
Earlier this year, more than 1,000 global respondents from the Adobe partner community participated in a survey about Adobe certification, its value and how to improve the program. We’d like to share some of the results as well as steps we are taking to make Adobe Certification even more valuable.
96% of respondents would recommend Adobe certification
We are encouraged by this number, which has been impacted by the positive response to several initiatives, including:
- We recently expanded the levels of expertise that are recognized within the Adobe certification framework, going from one level (Adobe Certified Expert), to three levels: Professional, Expert, or Master.
- We are also in the process of moving all Marketo and Magento certifications into the same testing platform so that all certifications are governed by the same rules and manageable within the Adobe Credential Manager.
- We introduced certification renewal (required every two years), ensuring your certification means you are an expert in the latest Adobe technology. Quick reminder: the first round of certification renewals that were due on June 30, 2020, have been pushed back and are now due on September 30, 2020*.
Adobe certification helps achieve personal growth and learning and builds one’s reputation
We asked respondents what influenced most their personal decision to gain certification, and Personal Growth & Learning took the top spot (64%). This included benefits such as:
- Differentiate myself within my company
- Impact on customer interactions/sales
- Potential to earn more money
When asked what other benefits they have already received as a result of achieving Adobe certification, respondents indicated the following:
- Positively impact image/reputation
- Perform complex tasks more confidently
- Introduce efficiencies into job
- Improve performance review ratings
Holding multiple Adobe certifications is on the rise
We asked your certified peers what their certification plans were in the next 12 months. Here’ how they responded:
- 52% plan to take an additional certification exam
- 33% plan to take an exam to renew or recertify
Room for Improvement
While we love all the positive feedback, we also appreciated the helpful suggestions and thoughtful concerns. Here are a few of the top suggestions/concerns and how we are addressing them.
Do I have to take and pass exams at all three certification levels? This sounds time consuming and expensive.
No, you don’t have to take and pass exams at all three certification levels. If you are an industry veteran capable of taking and passing the Master certification, while skipping the Professional and Expert certification exam, then do it!
Acquiring and/or managing certification exam vouchers is a very manual, time-consuming process.
We have been working on a voucher management solution and anticipate it will be introduced by the end of the year. It will be a convenient self-service model with no need to reach out to SPP Help to request a voucher or to manually track your vouchers. Additional features and functionality will be announced when the solution is ready.
As a practice lead, I need a way to keep track of who is taking what training and how far along they are and what training they have left.
We announced the first iteration of the Adobe Practice Lead Dashboard in April*. Our plan is to continue to add functionality to this dashboard, including the ability to track training across all registered members of the Adobe Solution Partner Program in your organization.
Exam preparation materials don’t always match exam questions, and this is frustrating.
Please remember that the “studying” part of passing a certification is only part of the test. You will be tested on items that you can only gain from job experience and not from studying exam materials. Product documentation and forums will be key resources for you in gaining this knowledge and experience.
Also note that our exams are prepared with input from our partner community. We are actively seeking subject matter experts (SMEs) among our partner community to help us keep our Adobe certifications relevant and dynamic. If interested, please apply to become a member of this SME community* and work with your peers to help develop our certification exams.