News: Cisco partners exclusively with VUE.

_CreeD_

The silliness continues...

We're pleased to announce that Pearson VUE will be the single vendor of Cisco® certification exams worldwide, effective August 1, 2007. We’re very excited about this change, and we’re confident that as a valued Cisco customer, you’ll benefit from the new level of security, global access, and innovative technology that will now be available through this collaboration. Cisco and Pearson VUE are partnering to create a new standard for individual information technology certifications and specialization exams, elevating them to the level of prestigious professional certification and licensure programs. As a result of this change, all individual Cisco technical certification exams for Cisco customers and partners will need to be scheduled through Pearson VUE. July 31, 2007, is the last date to take a Cisco exam through Prometric.

As global demand increases for individual Cisco certifications, it is critical that we improve and make our global certification systems more agile. Hence, we need to scale and optimize our test delivery—that is, the administration of Cisco certifications such as Cisco CCNA® and CCIE®. Traditionally, Cisco has used two core test delivery partners worldwide to deliver our individual certification exams: Pearson VUE and Prometric. However, after significant research, Pearson VUE was chosen as Cisco’s single testing partner. Pearson VUE was selected for the following reasons:

• Unparalleled global reach
• Forward-thinking policies and vision of technical resource recruitment
• Ability to scale to new countries with new requirements
• Ability to meet forecasted demands
• Ability to deliver on additional investments to secure Cisco’s test delivery technology

Our expectation is that shifting to a primary vendor strategy worldwide will allow us to advance test security through the deployment of advanced biometric technologies. Having a primary vendor will also facilitate the rapid localization of exams around the world, and allow for increased certification scalability and coverage.

Pearson VUE has more than 4000 test centers in 162 countries worldwide. If you previously utilized a Prometric testing center to take Cisco certifications, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with your local Pearson VUE testing center: Test Center Locator.

We’ve also tried to anticipate as many of your questions as possible and have included detailed information on our Certifications Online Support tool. These FAQs will be updated regularly as new information and developments are announced. If you have questions that are not addressed, please contact the Cisco Certification Online Support Team. If you would like additional information about taking a Cisco test at Pearson VUE, you will find a complete listing of customer service phone numbers at the Pearson VUE Website.


Thank you for your time and attention.

Cisco Career Certifications

CRUMDUB12

Are there any of these in Dublin / Ireland ???


Thought the site in town was Prometric .... , this is a disaster.

Moriarty

There are 5 Pearson VUE test centres for cisco certifcations in Ireland. Five in Dublin and one each in Cork, Galway, Waterford and Wexford.

There's a spot url=http://www.vue.com/vtclocator/]here[/url on their site that has full details.

Raekwon

There are much more VUE exam centres in this country then there are Prometric exam centres. It's something like a 5:1 ratio in Dublin alone.

The trouble is that VUE charge 21% vat on all exams that are sat in their exam centres, this coupled with the fact that there is a €21 price increase on the new CCNA 640-802 exam (old one cost €126, new one will cost €150), means that from August 1st it will cost approx €182 to sit the CCNA 640-802 exam. That is basically €56 more then if you sat the CCNA today in any Prometric centre in the country.

malcolmh

i think you will find the ratio change over the next few months. Now that MS has chosen prometric as their sole provider and cisco has chosen Vue as theirs most centres will now have to provide testing from both providers.

We are a private Vue test centre in Donegal and can offer Cisco testing and MS testing until end of dec 07 -for €15+ exam fee by appointment only..

PM me for details

Archytas

No Competition anymore.... That's gonna mean both are going to put their prices up for their respective exams. And we'll have to pay it to get certified. They'll basically be able to charge €200 for an exam and we'll have no choice.

Stky10

So, speaking as someone who is halfway through the CCSP with Prometric, I'm presuming the changeover means that the credits for the exams I've already passed won't be lost?

Archytas

No - I read it on the Pearson site that all current credits will be valid. Also you can still book the exams until the end of July as long as you're going to sit it before December.

_CreeD_

Your credits are with the exam vendor not the testing institute, the only time it gets tricky is if you have an exam with one tester that is a pre-requisite for an exam you want to take at another, their automated signup won't let you do it until you get the details transferred.