Anaconda Learning and Certification, my .50 cents

Hi folks, first thank you for the excellent product, Anaconda is fantastic. Today I received the great news about anaconda certification. It’s a wonderful idea, something that I was expecting for some time, It’s not on the news forum yet, pls don’t forget to add that. I think also that it would be good to include the python basics courses before the anaconda basics, sorry, but that’s the way certification works. Everything must be explicit, clear. Otherwise, people will start to ask things like:“Do I need to know python to get anaconda certified?”, believe me, it will happen. And talking about certification, we have to talk about Learning. One thing is very tied to the other. I think Anaconda Learning deserves a separate portal. The current works, but it’s very limited. Part of the certification budget could return to make a better portal with paths (trails or anything like) and with a better “my learning” experience and better courses display and filter. Certifications are a good thing for both sides, manufactures (let’s call this way!) and users, and should be used wisely, you know, not to be another revenue stream. Companies used to do that in the past, but as competition grew, that expensive kit of exam, training, and material became very hard to cope with, to follow, and update; mainly if you have a strong new kid on the block (competitor), making things freely available (among other things), to gain market share. But you can still have some balance of certification revenue and offers, Not so high to make it a revenue stream, and not so low that you need to cover with your revenue. There are some expanses needed to make it a good program, so you have to invest something. Just as an example, if you use a 3rd part, proctored validator for your exams, you’ll have to pay for it. And this is a good thing to think about because it gives more credibility to your exam. And please make it hard and practical, put some labs in it, the harder (difficult exam) is, the best is perceived by the market. We already have enough “certified on paper” people that knows nothing about and just want to have one more certification added to the CV. You can make it very good and be one of the first descent python certification on the market. It’s a tough job, but someone will eventually do it. Like you did with Conda. You have the spirit to make it great. Thanks again folks!