Jimmy Smutek

This is definitely not limited to WordPress, if you check 5 open positions from 5 different agencies you’ll likely walk away with ten different definitions of the requisite skills for a “web designer”.

Reminds me a bit of the movement for an official design certification.

Because anyone with a computer can sell design services without proper education, training and professional experience. This hurts designers, devalues our work and turns our talents into a commodity. The lack of formal standards supported by a certifying organization that creates visibility for our profession makes design certification more critical than ever.

The site (and the movement) is pretty old, and they’ve gotten nowhere with it, but their proposals are pretty interesting.

Personally, I would support a certification, in the WordPress community as well as in graphic design. I would only support this, however, if there was not a substantial fee attached – it needs to be accessible to everybody, and as long as there was no requirement for “formal” education, such as a four year degree.

Also, I think that a movement for a certification should ideally start outside of WordPress, and be based on the underlying technologies. PHP certification, JS certification, etc.

Regardless, ultimately it’s the market that’s going to decide whether an official certification is valuable or not. A bunch of us can get certified but, if clients don’t place any value on it then what does it really matter? I’m amazed at how many business owners I meet, who have a web presence, and who don’t even know what WordPress is.

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