On 2 Dec 2016, at 11:37 PM, Waithaka Ngigi <ngigi@at.co.ke> wrote:

Andrew, ++1;

I come from the Software field, although I studied Electronics,  and I could say you've described our field to a 'T'.

I always tell my coders that if you have to go to school to learn about the 'new thing' in Software, you'll always be in school! Education happens in realtime! 

‎Interview process, always starts with "...bring your laptop, show me what you've done before..." It doesn't matter whether you studied Agriculture in Campus, as one of the best coders I know how, studied!

I have gone through gazillion of guys fresh from Campus with IT/CS Certificates galore, who couldn't ‎build a solid app to save their lives. If you ask me, those are the majority! Case in point, from top 5 guys I was recently recommended by a leading local Campus, they all couldn't finish a simple assignment I handed to them. Reason, they hadn't covered the technology we using in their course work. On deeper prodding, they are being taught using technology that we were using in the early 2000s.

‎I compare my field with arts such as music, literature. You don't need any certification to write and/or compose the best sonata, poem etc That doesn't mean you couldn't study music / literature, you could, but that's not the only way!

Rgds

Waithaka Ngigi

Alliance Technologies
www.at.co.ke 

From: Andrew Alston via kictanet Sent: Friday, December 2, 2016 10:48 PM To: Ngigi Waithaka Reply To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Cc: Andrew Alston; JImmy Gitonga Subject: Re: [kictanet] Regulation of ICT Industry or Practice?

As a matter of interest – let’s look at networking for example.  Even the vendor certifications right at the upper level (CCIE/JNCIE etc) are lagging wayyyyy behind, never mind university curriculum.

 

The CCIE/JNCIE exams (for which by the way, there are no real “courses”, more just boot camps to prep for the exams, because you’re kind of expected to study that stuff yourself) don’t scratch the surface of the newer technologies.

 

As an example:

 

Segment routing – probably the biggest advancement on MPLS since MPLS was born – it’s in production and it’s in use – but you won’t find it any vendor certification.

The use of BGP Labelled Unicast – every vendor has a completely different method of handling this (iBGP/Single ASN vs eBGP/Multi-ASN etc) – and the certifications barely scratch the surface of that either.

IPv6 – there are only 6 places in the world that currently certify people in IPv6 to my knowledge – though that’s expanding with multiple MoU’s that AfriNIC is working on.

 

Now, let’s look also at the difference between degrees and certifications.  The way I understand this from speaking to people who have done both, University degrees impart a lot of theoretical knowledge, they don’t necessarily impart practical knowledge and the ability to diagnose and think outside of the box.  Vendor certifications on the other hand teach you vendor specifics – they avoid the theory and you learn by wrote.  Neither teach networking from the base level – the understanding of the specifications.  It is only through a lot of reading and study and research that a network engineer truly becomes great at what he does, because as I have said to every engineer I have ever trained myself – the difference between a network engineer and a person who has a bunch of certifications is this – a network engineer who is truly good should be able to get onto *any* vendor hardware and through his underlying knowledge of protocol be able to operate the equipment within a few hours – because it’s all syntax.

 

Understanding network technology is something that simply isn’t taught – it’s learnt through passion and dedication and thoughtful study of the RFC’s behind the protocols.  RFC’s that are constantly changing, developing and evolving at a rate that standard educational forms cannot keep up with.  Look at the number of RFC’s that have been written and depreciated in the last few years with regards to IPv6 for example – a technology that is critical to our future.

 

Regulating certification and degrees in an environment evolving this fast is therefore, in my opinion, senseless, because if people are relying entirely on what they were taught in some course – they are relying on technologies that are years behind the curve and are going to find themselves overtaken by those who are on the ground and constantly evolving their own knowledge based on what is being churned out of the massive engine we know as the IETF.

 

Andrew