Consulting,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

Apple's New Certification Track

I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal

The Tiger Apple Certified Systems Administrator (ACSA) track allowed certification candidates to accomplish the ACSA by getting an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC) and then obtaining 7 points. Points were obtained by taking a variety of exams whose point values were based on the number of days of the corresponding class.

Apple has now posted the ACSA requirements for 10.5. There is no longer a point system, which was a unique approach in the IT industry for achieving certifications. Instead, for the Leopard ACSA, Apple has now trimmed down the number of courses that are provided and require that all exams be completed to accomplish the ACSA. For now, the certificates listed include:
Mac OS X Server Essentials v10.5
Directory Services v10.5
Deployment v10.5
Advanced Administration v10.5

Notice that there are no workstation oriented exams listed. The Support Essentials exam is all that is required to achieve an Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist (ACHDS) for Tiger. The ACHDS certification has been retired and replaced with the Apple Certified Support Professional for Leopard, which replaces the ACHDS and only requires the Support Essentials exam.

More information on the new certification program can be found here:
http://training.apple.com/certification/macosx