Getting Credit for What You Know: Knowledge Maintenance tests and certificates

Question

EMC's Knowledge Maintenance program deploys two kinds of notification in an effort to keep you up-to-date in your Proven Professional subject areas: regular product-specific instruction, sent soon after products release twice yearly validation tests, sent in April and October The product-specific courses happen on the product release cycle throughout the year. That means if 2012 has four releases relevant to your Proven speciality you will receive four Knowledge Maintenance notices. That number varies: you may receive more than four Knowledge Maintenance notices in a year, or you may not receive any. Validation tests have a regular schedule.  We send test notifications a maximum of twice each year—in April and October—but only to those that received product-specific instruction from the Knowledge Maintenance Program. If you received Knowledge Maintenance mailings at any time during the last six-month period, you should receive an e-mail notification with a link to the test for that track. Self-validation and Reward April & October Validation Tests Regular validation tests help you confirm your knowledge of recent product releases, and let you review the content for things you may have forgotten. They also provide you the opportunity to earn a Knowledge Maintenance Certificate of Completion. If you receive a KM test link, here's what you can expect: Links to all the Knowledge Maintenance content you received in the previous six monthsDon't worry if you haven't taken the courses prior to receiving the Test notification or if you want to review the course materials before taking the test: we include the previous content links so you can easily find the content you need for test preparation. Question content drawn from courses released during the prior six monthsThe questions will generally be unique to the Knowledge Maintenance program and should focus on the most important product updates from the Knowledge Maintenance courses you received during that six-month period. A variable number of questions: 4 per product-specific courseA Knowledge Maintenance validation test contains 4 questions for each of the courses sent to you during that six-month period. For example, if you received four courses the test for that period would have 16 questions. A test might have as few as 4 questions if there is only one course released during that period. Infinite retests until you passThe important thing for Knowledge Maintenance is that you know the content. This is not high-stakes testing in the way that a Proven Exam is, and you are allowed to retake the test until you pass it. A certificate, emailed automatically when you passFor each KM test you complete, you will receive a certificate of completion. This is an official document that confirms that you completed a particular Knowledge Maintenance bundle, and that lets you show that you've kept your knowledge current. CertTracker credit for completing the bundleOnce you pass the validation test, the Knowledge Maintenance bundle will be marked as complete in your CertTracker account. Troubleshooting If you take a Knowledge Maintenance assessment test and pass, you should receive the certificate within a day or two and your CertTracker account should be updated. If you pass the test but do not receive the certificate, it may mean that you have more than one Powerlink account, or that your e-mail address is somehow not correct in the EMC Proven Cert Tracker portal. If you think you earned a certificate but have not received it, please write to EdServices@emc.com with details of which test you took and when. If possible, include a copy of the Knowledge Maintenance e-mail you received so we can see the hyperlink you used to register for the test.

Julien_Fontaine · Answer

Hello KR, Do you have a list of product that benefits from this program ? Is the IIG stack involved ?

KR2 · Answer

Hello Julien,

The Knowledge Maintenance program covers most of the Proven Specialist Tracks. Those currently part of the Knowledge Maintenance program are:

Backup and Recovery-Avamar IE
Backup and Recovery-Avamar SA
Backup and Recovery-NetWorker IE
Backup and Recovery-NetWorker SA
Backup and Recovery-Solutions TA
CLARiiON PE
CLARiiON Solutions IE
CLARiiON Solutions SA
CLARiiON Solutions TA
EMC Centera PE
Content Addressed Storage(CAS)IE
Content Addressed Storage(CAS)TA
EMC Storage and Information Infrastructure TA
Ionix for IT Operations Intelligence
Celerra PE
Network Attached Storage(NAS)IE
Network Attached Storage(NAS)SA
Network Attached Storage(NAS)TA
RecoverPoint IE
RecoverPoint/SE IE
Storage Area Network(SAN)IE
Storage Area Network(SAN)SA
Storage Area Network(SAN)TA
Storage Management IE
Storage Management SA
Storage Management TA
Symmetrix PE
Symmetrix Solutions IE
Symmetrix Solutions SA
Symmetrix Solutions TA
VNX PE
VNX Solutions IE
VNX Solutions SA
VNX Solutions TA

This list will change as Proven tracks are added or retired.

Julien_Fontaine · Answer

Thanks KR. No Knowledge Maintenance for Documentum !

KR2 · Answer

Julien, That is correct.  At the moment there is no Knowledge Maintenance for Documentum.

vforde · Answer

Hi,

The cert tracker shows that Proven Specialist Certifications do not expire. Does EMC make it mandatory for holders to ensure all KMs are done and exam passed to keep any partner accreditations etc or Specialist cert expiry?

Thanks,

Victor

ddProven1 · Answer

Hello Victor,

The EMC Proven Professional program does not require that you complete the KM pieces in order to keep your existing credentials. KM can be used to update skills through study modules and prove knowledge of the updated content by passing the online test. Note - although it is not required to keep earned credentials you should check with your partner manager to ensure that KM completion isn't a requirement for some other reason.

vforde · Answer

Hi,

Thanks for the update so no central mandate check locally.

BTW I find the KM updates excellent and one of the real benefits of getting the Certs, instead of rooting through release notes to get an awareness.

Thanks,

Victor

KR2 · Answer

Hi Victor,

I'm glad this post was useful to you. At least once a quarter I'll post information like this, focussed on the program in general. If you want to be notified when that information becomes available, take a moment to visit my profile and click "Follow" in the upper right corner.

And thanks for letting us know that the updates are useful to you. I'll pass your comments on to our management.

Best Regards,

Karl

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