4/3/2002 -- Ten years ago yesterday, on April 2, 1992, Microsoft Corp. introduced a three-exam certification program to validate a person's skills with Microsoft software. Since then, the MCP program has expanded to 10 titles, 46 exams and issued 1,567,159 certifications to 1,255,713 individuals worldwide.

"The MCP program has always been about validating various IT skills," says Anne Marie McSweeney, director of Microsoft's certification and skills assessment group. "We're very proud of [what the program's become]."

Over the next 10 years, McSweeney says that the certification group will look at ways to enhance the program and add validation techniques to keep certification relevant. She mentions that secure testing over the desktop, experience requirements and lab simulations are possibilities, but said that a time frame to implement these features is difficult to pinpoint.

Microsoft will mark the occasion with an MCP 10th Anniversary party at next week's Tech-Ed Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

To read Microsoft's official press release on the anniversary, click here. -MCPMag.com