7/28/2004 -- On Monday Zend Technologies unveiled a new certification program designed to certify the skills of those who develop, build and manage PHP applications.

Daniel Kushner, director of training and certification for Zend, told CertCities.com yesterday the company decided to create the new Zend Certified Engineer certification in order to meet the needs of those who need to verify PHP skills.

Kushner said that the creation of the program's one exam, #200-100: Zend PHP Certification Exam, was led by 10 PHP experts with the assistance of a psychometrician to ensure validity. "Quality is our only objective," he commented.

The exam consists of multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank and other standard-format question types. Kushner recommends that candidates have at least six months experience with PHP before attempting the title. Training is not required.

Objectives for the exam can be culled from the online table of contents of an upcoming preparation guide, Kushner said.

The exam debuted Monday at the 2004 O'Reilly Open Source Convention in Portland, Ore., for the discounted price of $150 (U.S). It is now live and available at Pearson Vue testing centers for $200 (U.S.).

Benefits for those who become Zend certified include a listing in an upcoming "Yellow Pages" on Zend's Web site, as well as discounts on Zend products and PHP conferences.

According to Kushner, the new title currently focuses on PHP 4. Although PHP 5 was just released, the company plans to keep the focus on PHP 4 for some time, adding a parallel PHP 5 track when demand indicates.

For more information on Zend's certification program, go here. -Becky Nagel