It's the same in any situation - if we get someone in we should take steps to ensure he is competant to do the job. For many trades there are official certifications and registrations eg CORGI registration for gas fitters. Sadly many of these are just buy-ins to trade federations with no test of competancy.

Microsoft certifications (and CORGI registrations) are expensive pieces of paper that show someone can pass an exam - at least that's better than just paying to join a club.

The other problem is that these registrations are expensive and the holder has to charge higher fees to cover his costs. This leads to undercutting by uncertified moneymakers or foreign short term migrant workers who don't have to pay tax and local living costs. The result is good qualified people going under financially as they cannot cut their charges to match, having fixed overheads.

This has recently happenned to a plumber friend who has to pay taxes, rates and rent and keep a family unlike the migrants taking his work who come in for a few weeks, hot bunking and taking a very low payment for the job (minimum wage doesn't apply to self employed people). This succeeds simply because people are more interested in price than quality but the decreasing quality will gradually bring the whole industry down to the lowest level if properly skilled people cannot make a living.