GuidesRoad To MCSE: Microsoft MCT Program Goes Into Underdrive Page 2

Road To MCSE: Microsoft MCT Program Goes Into Underdrive Page 2

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Thomas Shinder

Change Is In The Winds…

It’ll be this way until January 1, 2001.
According to the Training and Certification Newsletter put out by Windows 2000
Magazine on October 20, 2000, the requirements for teaching a particular MOC
course will change. First, all MCTs must be MCSEs. This is a good thing. The way
the rules are now, any MCP that took the Workstation exam could go out and start
teaching Windows NT Workstation, even if they haven’t a clue about TCP/IP, NT
Server, or any Enterprise concepts. By requiring MCTs to have the premium MCSE
certification, you can be assured that the instructor has a clue about the
bigger picture.

“Exam? I Don’t Need No Stinkin’
Exam!”

However, the requirement for passing the exam
associated with the class is being dropped. What does this mean to you as a
prospective student who may be taking the course in order to pass the Microsoft
exam associated with a particular course?

Suppose you are interested in Exchange 2000. You
want to take a class at a CTEC because your experience there has been that the
instructors are knowledgeable about the subjects the teach. You register and
take the class. 

During the class the instructor clicks through
the torrent of slides provided to him by Microsoft and reads to you the MOC.
Whenever someone asks a question, he says he doesn’t know. When the class is
over, you realize that although you don’t know much about Exchange 2000, you
knew a lot more than the instructor!

All your previous experiences with the center had
been good ones. How did this happen? It happened because the instructor didn’t
need to really know the product well enough to teach it! He’s an MCSE in
Windows NT 4.0 and has never seen Exchange 2000, much less Exchange 5.5 or even
Windows 2000. With the rules as they stand for 2001, this is perfectly
legitimate and acceptable behavior.

You might think this would never happen. I assure
you it will. The new Microsoft exams are an order of magnitude more difficult to
pass than the old ones. This means it will take longer for people to prepare for
and pass the exams. In the meantime, CTECs need someone to teach these classes.
In our example, they could hire a contractor that has passed the Exchange 2000
exams. But contractors are expensive, and the training center already has MCSE
staff instructors. The center will demand that their instructors teach these
courses, and the instructors must comply because their employer’s request is
completely within the bounds of acceptable practice according to the new rules.

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