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Are Hewlett Packard Enterprise certifications only for channel partners?

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For a variety of reasons, in HPE Certification and Learning, we are often asked whether our certifications are “… only for channel partner employees or can others obtain them?” The short answer is that, "others can obtain them."  HPE certifications are available for channel partner employees, HPE employees, independent consultants, and customers. We call these our Career category of certifications. 

There are a couple of exceptions to this general rule regarding career certifications. The sales certifications are for HPE channel partners and employees. There are also some TC or Technical Certified software certifications built only for partners. These we refer to as Affiliate certifications. 

Outside of these exceptions in the Affiliate category, all HPE certifications built for technical professionals are audience agnostic. They can be obtained by customers and partners, affiliated or unaffiliated with a partner. If you are a technical professional assisting your employer or customer select, sell, or integrate the right HPE solution, our certifications are for you.

There are some recognized challenges, however. Because our certifications are mostly sought by our channel partners, we have chosen to discuss them under our "Partner Programs." At the time of this blog, this link is toward the bottom of the www.hpe.com web site main page.

Once at the partner program area, you can locate a selection for "Training and Certification."  There you will find that the partner program certifications are accessible to all audiences. Anyone coming to the HPE web site can also access information about our certifications. You do not need to be a partner to see all the descriptions for our certifications.

One other thing to remember and realize is that a certification is obtained after successfully passing one or more required exams. The certification is not the training. Training helps build knowledge and skill, but experience is also required. The exams validate skills and knowledge. Experiences help you solve problems you have not seen before with the skill and knowledge you have previously learned. What all of this means is that training is not a requirement for certification. Training is always recommended, but it is not required. Therefore, the candidate for certification can gain the knowledge and skills in any manner they need to be successful. This can be while working for a partner, and further utilized independently or if hired later by a customer. The same is true in reverse. An employee at a customer can obtain any of our career certifications and then use them if they ever decide to work for a channel partner.

If you are interested in training, you can select either training link to determine the best class schedule for your needs.

Are HPE certifications open to all? Generally, the answer is “yes!” All career certifications are open to all channel partners, HPE employees, independents, and customers.

About the Author

jimlucari

Jim Lucari leads certification solutions enablement in Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s WW Sales Enablement organization. He is responsible for sales and technical certification exam development and program operation, certification course development, certification architecture and framework, translations, HPE Press publications, and remote lab operations. Jim has been in IT technology work for over 30 years with experience primarily in networking and storage technologies. He has 20 plus years of experience in training development and certification.