In WhatsAppin Telegramin instagramin TikTokin Youtube or in the marketplace of Amazon. Any place is good, if you search properly, to find the exams, with their respective answers, that give us access to a technical certification for our curriculum, and therefore, to a job or a salary increase. This has become a very common practice in the United States.
According to data from the research company IDCthe US education and training market in Information technology includes certification tests that can move a few 1.4 billion dollars a yearor what is the same, some €1.350 million. It has become a business for the issuers of these tests and a claim for the companies, but what about the workers? For them it is a financial and time outlay importantso they can not play it and try to pass at all costs.
Companies, regardless of their sector or size, require complex server networks, databases and other technologies, since today everything is digitized. Rare is the company that does not require its workers to have specific knowledge about tools such as slack, LinkedIN, Microsoft, Amazon, Google either salesforce.
And these companies need to verify that their workers are trained in the main computer systems and that they have the necessary preparation to install and start them up. Can you imagine not knowing how to secure a data set in Google Cloud or not knowing how to connect a cisco routerdespite putting in the curriculum that you are an expert in the matter? Well it has happened!
Can you imagine getting on a plane and that the pilot has falsified the answers on the exam to obtain the title? We recently learned of the case of a worker who became IT vice president at a large bank by forging certificates. He even went so far as to do a platform exam. azure from Microsoft, for which he paid a significant amount, after memorizing all the answers he searched for on the Internet.
A problem that cannot be solved
Spain, the United States and the world in general suffer from the phenomenon of ‘titleitis’ and for this reason, those who are unemployed or simply those who want to improve their standard of living, aspire to a certification as a fast track to access the technology sector, without the need for a university degree (more expensive) that gives them stability.
In addition, companies win, since it is easier for them to subcontract maintenance to third IT companies with certified technicians who have specialized departments.
Corruption is unstoppable! Almost half of the technological degrees issued worldwide are obtained fraudulently. The problem is that companies, despite being aware of the problem, do not tackle it at the root, preferring to dismiss the worker instead of initiating an in-depth investigation into the methods of obtaining their certifications.
Obviously in the majority prevails the law of least effortbecause copying is not new and has existed all life.
But other reasons are, for example, the lack of time to memorize extensive topics or the can purchasing, since they cannot afford to fail because they could not financially afford to resubmit. If you want to access the sector, the exam fee is paid by you, but if you belong to a company, it usually carries the costs.
Companies are also partly to blame, since vendors often offer consulting and technical assistance to companies best deals in their products if the firms have more certified workers on their payroll. In this way the company would more attractive for customers and they would get discounts in computer products.
The consequence
This malpractice generates a devastating side effect for:
- The companies. They are staffed with unqualified staff and offer poor service. Added to this is the time they must invest in investigating who is committing irregularities and who is not.
- The consumers. Since the services that are provided are offered by unprepared people, which means that they are in imminent danger.
- The legal ones. Those applicants who truly do a meticulous study and preparation job.
- Certificate companies. If the phenomenon of copying becomes popular, people end up devaluing this type of certification, so it loses its effectiveness and its extraordinary character. Anyone can get it!
- The mentality. Oddly enough, it could feed harmful concepts in society such as racismwhen internalized as normal that a person from a developing country (such as India) can copy to access a certification.
The solution
Change exam format. Many of the questions are reused for months, and even years, and applicants memorize them to later post them on the Internet and earn money with it. There are even forums where exam answers are corrected jointly and where you can buy them for barely 10 euros.
There are companies like ServiceNow that analyzes the data to identify similar responses or the cybersecurity firm redhatwhich avoids multiple choice questions and opts for practical exams.
people are even infiltrating Telegram groups to share their company’s exams with the aim of finding consumers and thus cutting off some of the exam traffic.
