Linux Professional Institute Certification Program Receives "Endorsement" of Standards Organization
(San Francisco (USA) - August 9, 2005): The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), the world's premier Linux certification organization (http://www.lpi.org), announced that its LPIC-1 Program is the first IT certification program to be professionally accredited by the National Commission For Certifying Agencies (NCCA). "We believe this to be a first in IT Certification--the independent endorsement and accreditation of an IT testing program by a recognized standards agency. Understandably, we are very proud of this achievement," said Jim Lacey, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Linux Professional Institute. The NCCA is the accreditation body of The National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA). NOCA, based in the United States, is a recognized leader in setting quality standards for credentialing programs. It sets quality standards for numerous certification programs in the fields of health, education, government services, recreation, engineering, environment, and private industry. "We welcome LPI to our growing family of organizations with accredited certification programs--and the first organization in the field of information technology to have met our strict criteria for quality assurance, professional test development, and organizational integrity, "said Wade Delk, Executive Director of the National Organization for Competency Assurance. In order for a program to meet the requirements of NCCA accreditation it must demonstrate compliance with rigorous criteria in professional test development and a thorough and demonstrated commitment to such scientific processes as psychometrics--a statistical method employed to measure overall exam quality. The NCCA accreditation is solely for a test program, however, organization's submitting an application for accreditation must also meet strict guidelines that ensure both exam takers and the public interest are being met within the organization itself. "It should come as no surprise to anyone in the IT community that it would be an organization committed to the promotion of free and open source software that would so readily meet the NCCA requirements for acting in the public interest," said Dan York, a co-founder of the Linux Professional Institute. Mr. York pointed out that Board member, Jared Buckley, of Texas, USA specifically serves on the Board of Directors as someone who is not related to the field of IT education or certification and who is designated as the "public" member of the Board of Directors of LPI. In addition, LPI as per NCCA requirements must have someone from the candidate community on the Board--this is undertaken by Torsten Scheck of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany who has a LPIC-1 designation. "Our exam development and certification staff work very hard to ensure we incorporate the highest professional and quality standards in our test development process. We trust that this remarkable achievement will cause employers and enterprise-level organizations to consider our merit and professionalism when making certification choices for their organizations," said Jim Lacey. LPI started in 1999 as a grassroots organization aimed at removing obstacles to Open Source adoption and increasing the skill level of the Linux and Open source community. LPIC-1, its most popular certification program, tests candidates at a junior level of Linux systems administration. LPI has since delivered exams in almost every country and has gained the support of vendors, trainers, employers and governments. In addition, LPI supports affiliate networks on five continents, worldwide, including Brazil, Bulgaria, Jamaica, United States, Japan, Canada, Germany, Australia, China, France, the United Kingdom and South Africa. -- 30 -- Linux Professional Institute: The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) develops professional certification for the Linux operating system, independent of software vendors or training providers. Established as an international non-profit organization in 1999 by the Linux community, LPI develops accessible, internationally-recognized certification programs which have earned the respect of vendors, employers and administrators. LPI's activities involve hundreds of volunteers and professionals throughout the world in many different capacities, and the group encourages active public involvement through mailing lists and its website at www.lpi.org. LPI's multi-level program of exams is administered globally through Pearson VUE and Prometric testing centers. LPI's major financial sponsors are Platinum Sponsors IBM (NYSE:IBM), Bradford Learning, Linux Journal, Linux Magazine, Maxspeed, Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL), SGI (NYSE:SGI), and TurboLinux as well as Gold Sponsors, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP), IDG and Wave Technologies. The National Organization for Competency Assurance: The National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA), a membership organization for certifying bodies, provides resources to enhance and expand its members' credentials and educates consumers, employers and government agencies on the importance of certification for all fields. NOCA's mission is to promote excellence in competency assurance for practitioners in all occupations and professions. For more information please see http://www.noca.org. The National Commission for Certifying Agencies: The National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) is the accrediting body of the National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA). Since 1977, the NCCA has been accrediting certifying programs based on the highest quality standards in professional certification to ensure the programs adhere to modern standards of practice in the certification industry. To view the standards visit http://www.noca.org/ncca/ncca.htm. NCCA accredited programs certify individuals in a wide range of professions and occupations including nurses, automotive professionals, respiratory therapists, counselors, emergency technicians, crane operators and more. Of NOCA's well over 350 members, 62 have accredited programs. Media contacts: Scott Lamberton Director of Community Relations, Linux Professional Institute [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1-416-666-1574 Wade Delk Executive Director, National Organization for Competency Assurance (202) 367-1165 (202) 367-2165 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Linux Professional Institute media mailing list Contact: Scott Lamberton, Director of Community Relations Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Telephone: +1-416-666-1574 To Subscribe or unsubscribe send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "media unsubsribe"; in the subject line or do so directly at: http://list.lpi.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/media _______________________________________________ lpi-announce mailing list [email protected] http://list.lpi.org/mailman/listinfo/lpi-announce
