Gift Peddie (7/19/2009)
Considering that obtaining Vendor Certifications is voluntary, I really don't think there are legal grounds for any governmental organization to make such requests. If these certifications were required for employment by government regulations, then there would be a case for such action.
I may not call these high school level agreements vendor certification because when colleges and community colleges get vendor agreement with Microsoft the requirements are very strict including only five per class yes only five students per class. The high school level agreements are one step above expensive public relations.
I prepared for Sun Java certified a while back and read a posting by a Russian professor of CS barely passing that base Java exam. That and the fact that women and minorities not passing them makes them worthy of questions all these companies earn at least one third of their revenue from Government contracts. The disadvantaged are locked out of career improvement credentials.
The only thing the MCTS and MCITP would do for me as a hiring manager (which I'm not) is bring someone closer to being called for an interview. In addition they would actually get greater scrutiny than others as I have run into too many paper MCDBA's and MCSE's to place a lot of credence on the certifications alone. They may get an interview easier, but they better have superior knowledge to those who are relying solely on experience.
Also realize some people just don't test well. Test anxiety is a real issue for some people. My oldest daughter has problems with testing. She once had to take the USSF Grade 8 recertification test three times before she passed with a score of 75%, yet she was extremely knowledgable about the Laws of the Game and interpretting them both to the letter and the spirit of the game and was a an excellent referee. Oh, and the test at the time was a 100 question test, so each question was worth only one point. All certification says is that you have (supposedly) the knowledge but it does not always say how good you are at the task. I'd take my oldest daughter as a ref over quite a few of the more "experienced" referees I have had the pleasure of working with or observing.
So, the same goes with hiring DBA's, developers, system administrators, etc. The certifications may be nice, but their expereince and knowledge is what will get them the position. Personally, I'd like to get the MCITP certification as an acknowledgement of and validation of my experience and knowledge. Only problem is I just don't seem to have the time with everything else I have going on in my life. Same reason I have not persued my Doctorate, no time or money.