COMMON President Randy Dufault announced yesterday at the group's annual meeting and exposition in Reno, Nev., the creation of a new COMMON certification program designed to serve as a means for businesses to better identify top IT talent.

The certification program will consist of two skill levels--COMMON Business Computing Associate (CBCA) and COMMON Certified Business Computing Professional (CCBCP). The certifications will complement existing technical certification programs offered by IBM and others. The goal is to demonstrate to businesses that individuals who earn the credentials possess a deep knowledge of business computing. Both levels require applicants to pass exams that will be developed by the COMMON organization. The CBCA credential will be aimed at recent graduates or other entry-level professionals, while the CCBCP credential will be geared toward advanced IT professionals.

"Professionals or students who have passed our (CBCA) qualifying exam will, in our opinion, have the skills necessary for success in their first IT jobs," said Bill Hansen, COMMON Strategic Education Team manager. "We want to deliver IT professionals to the workplace that have proven their competence and can provide an immediate benefit to their employers," he said. Said Dufault: "There is more IT talent than ever before, and we feel like COMMON's certifications provide a way for forward-thinking professionals to separate themselves from the rest of the field."

The CBCA exam is scheduled to be introduced at COMMON's 2010 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., and the CCBCP exams are planned to be introduced at the 2011 annual meeting. Next year's gathering in Orlando will mark the organization's 50th year of supporting business computing on midrange server platforms.

"COMMON's 50th anniversary will be a time to commemorate the great features that have contributed to the longevity of midrange business computing platforms," said Dufault.  "...It is also an opportunity to mark how much the organization and our profession has matured. Our certification program emphasizes how COMMON has become a force for market change; we are setting the standards for what qualified IT professionals need to be," he said.

The CCBCP certification is expected to help expand COMMON's role as the hub for businesses to find and develop the best IT talent. The higher certification level is intended for advanced IT professionals who have significant work experience in a business IT environment. It will require candidates to pass three separate exams.

About the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition 

The COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition takes place every spring. The event offers COMMON members and attendees networking opportunities with the best in their fields and the opportunity to learn about the newest products and best practices for midrange users. This year's meeting offered more than 500 educational sessions and is the world's largest Power Systems Exposition.

About COMMON

COMMON is the world's largest user group of midrange IBM and IBM-compatible technology. The organization comprises more than 4,000 individual and corporate members. They represent more than 22,000 IT professionals involved with the IBM Power Systems (IBM i, AIX, Linux) and related solutions. For more information about COMMON, visit www.common.org.