Re: ORACLE INCREASES COST OF ORACLE9i DBA CERTIFICATION

Hi Dusan,

Note that I'm not a fan of Oracle insisting a new OCP applicant needs to attend a class to become certified. Attending the Introduction to SQL course hardly guarantees the person of being a competent DBA. They're going the wrong way with this one. I am a "potential" fan of the master program where you need to actually apply skill in some practical hands on scenarios and I think they moving the right way with that one.

However, I just have to make some comments on your experiences in attending Oracle training. As an ex instructor and centre manager such tales simply horrify me (and yes I know they exist and I'm not doubting your account). A few points.

When they occur, it's absolutely vital that you, the customer, notify Oracle in the strongest possible terms. Oracle's not dumb here, they do listen and will take action. It's in Oracle's interests to do so and such tales are obvious minefields for business. If an instructor is not up to the job, tell Oracle (during the course if necessary). Again it just takes one bad instructor to run a few courses to destroy a business reputation. Some bad apples (generally contractors used by Oracle) do get through the system.

The other key point I want to make is that in my experience (mainly here in Australia and specifically here in sunny Canberra), the good instructors, the good courses, the good experiences way way way out weigh the bad. Yes, we've run disasters with the software not installed properly or the network or server coming down or a poorly prepared contractor walking in but they were extremely rare occurrences (I can think of 5-6 such occurrences or so off the top of my head in over 5 years). Unfortunately, the good stories, the good experiences are never shared and spread as enthusiastically as the bad (in forums such as this). And that's unfortunately because the perception out there in real world land can be a twisted and inaccurate one from the truth.

Now I have absolutely no issue with you raising these concerns, it's your absolute right and good on you for doing so. However, it would really be good if just every now and then someone would out there would highlight a positive experience and I guess help to give a balanced view of what Oracle University has to offer.

That noise you hear is me stepping off the soap box !!

Cheers

Richard

"Dusan Bolek" <pagesflames_at_usa.net> wrote in message news:1e8276d6.0207020602.293fbcb1_at_posting.google.com...
> "K. Zamboni" <kevinzamboni_at_yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:<ui2eqt71v6ev59_at_corp.supernews.com>...
> > ORACLE INCREASES COST OF ORACLE9i DBA CERTIFICATION
> > New "Instructor-Led" Training Requirement Costs at Least US$1500
>
> I've read that reason for this is "increasing the level of quality of
> our certification skill and ability benchmarks". Sounds funny to me, I
> was on a lot of instructor-led trainings in Oracle, so seems to my
> like level will not be as much increasing as supposed to be. :-)
> I remember training about Implementing scalable databases (or
> something like that), where attendees were seniors from major telekom
> and bank companies who wants to learn how to manage better their TB
> databases. In position of rookie in this group was one guy who has
> "only" five years with Oracle. Oracle appointed guy who told us, that
> he works with Oracle products for !ONE! year and his position is in
> support. That guy never seen a VLDB, not mentioning to implement some.
> He nicely read all papers, but that was everything we could expect
> from him. All questions were answered after few weeks when this guy
> got some information from more experienced colleagues.
> I've also heard about another training (about some advanced techniques
> in Oracle programming), where as instructor of senior developers was
> used some rookie, who had no clue about even basic PL/SQL. This
> training ends with big shouting and Oracle gave back all fees to
> attendees.
> So is great that Oracle wil increase the level of certification by
> this way. I don't know why, but just know came to my mind one topic
> from paper distributed in Copenhagen last week about Oracle racing
> team. There was stated that one sail for boat costs about 40.000 USD.
> Looks like there a great demand for new sails. :-))
>
> --
> _________________________________________
>
> Dusan Bolek, Ing.
> Oracle team leader
>
> Note: pagesflames_at_usa.net has been cancelled due to changes (maybe we
> can call it an overture to bankruptcy) on that server. I'm still using
> this email to prevent SPAM. Maybe one day I will change it and have a
> proper mail even for news, but right now I can be reached by this
> email.
Received on Tue Jul 02 2002 - 20:40:07 CDT