News

VMware Changes Its Recertification Requirements for VCPs

• By Wendy A. Hernandez
• 02/05/2019

In a move to appease its certification community, this week VMware Inc. announced it will no longer require mandatory recertification every two years for VMware Certified Professionals, effective immediately. As Karl Childs explained in his blog post, "We want you to upgrade and recertify when it's important or viable for you."

In addition to the blog post, an accompanying video and FAQ doc were included to help explain the changes in more detail.

According to the FAQ doc, upgrade paths do not go away and will still apply for active certifications. Folks looking to upgrade to the latest version within the same track can do so if they're within three versions -- a change from having to be within two versions. Upgrading to a different track still requires VCPs to be within two versions. Table 1 shows the different upgrade options.

If you had a certification that expired and if in the past six months you followed the Expired Certification path to renew it, VMware acknowledges the time and money invested to do so and will provide a free, one-year premium license to the VMware Learning Zone.

For those holding certifications listed in Table 2 that have expired, they will change to being active in April 2019. You can then complete the upgrade path to the latest version, rather than following the Expired Certification path.

There will be no changes to partner programs or to partner competency requirements and VMware Certified Instructors (VCIs) will continue to have a two-year recertification requirement to ensure they are up-to-date with current VMware technology, product updates and courseware.