Torque Social Hour: CertifyWP  ## Metadata - Author: [[Torque Magazine]] - Full Title: Torque Social Hour: CertifyWP - Category: #articles - Document Note: ## Summarize: The article discusses the topic of WordPress certification and credentials, exploring the benefits, challenges, and relevance of such programs in the open-source community. Talisha Luellen, the CEO and founder of WP connects and the creator of certified WP, shares insights into the different types of credentials being developed for WordPress professionals. The credentials aim to establish standardized levels of knowledge for website management, design, and development within the WordPress space. The article addresses the distinction between certifications and credentials, with the latter requiring periodic retesting to stay up-to-date with evolving technologies. While some in the WordPress community have been skeptical about certifications in the past, the landscape is changing, and more people are acknowledging the value of such credentials in validating expertise and enhancing hiring processes. The discussion also touches upon the need for affordable and community-built credentials, as well as the involvement of advisory boards to ensure a well-rounded and up-to-date curriculum. ## Bullet Points: **Types of Credentials:** - WordPress Management and Design Credential - Three-tiered structure: basic, intermediate, expert - Demonstrates proficiency in managing and designing WordPress websites - Periodic updates to stay relevant - WordPress Developer Credential (upcoming) - Focuses on backend development skills - Advisory board ensures relevant content **Benefits of Credentials:** - Provide standardized knowledge levels for hiring and contracting - Offer a competitive advantage in the job market - Enhance customer confidence in service providers' expertise - Elevate the credibility and authority of certified professionals **Challenges and Concerns:** - Cost and accessibility of certifications - Continuous updates to match evolving technologies - Balancing community input and defining knowledge standards - Ensuring credentials are not seen as gatekeeping measures ## Paraphrase: 1. Talisha Luellen highlights the difference between certifications and credentials in the context of WordPress professionals. Certifications are obtained by completing a training course and often come with a certificate, while credentials are more comprehensive and require periodic retesting. She explains the need for credentials to be regularly updated to reflect the ever-changing landscape of WordPress technologies. 2. The article explores the benefits and drawbacks of implementing WordPress credentials. On the positive side, credentials can provide standardized levels of knowledge, making it easier for employers to assess a candidate's skills. For professionals, earning a credential can offer a competitive edge in the job market and increase customer trust. However, concerns arise about affordability, potential gatekeeping, and defining the scope of knowledge to be included in the credentials. ## Conclusion: The article sheds light on the emerging trend of WordPress credentials and their potential impact on the community. By offering standardized knowledge levels, credentials can benefit both professionals and employers, streamlining the hiring process and instilling confidence in service providers. While there are challenges to address, such as affordability and regular updates, the move toward community-built credentials signals a positive step in ensuring relevance and inclusivity in the open-source ecosystem. ## Questions: 1. How can WordPress credentials effectively balance the need for up-to-date knowledge with the rapidly evolving nature of technologies in the WordPress space? 2. What strategies are being considered to make credentials more accessible and affordable for a diverse range of WordPress professionals? 3. How will advisory boards ensure that the content of credentials remains relevant and reflects the current needs of the WordPress community? 4. What potential impact could WordPress credentials have on the hiring and contracting practices in the WordPress ecosystem? 5. Are there any concerns about the possible overemphasis on certifications overshadowing real-world experience and skills? ## Auto-tagging: WordPress, credentials, certifications, open-source, standardized knowledge, hiring, professional development ## Index Creation: - WordPress Management and Design Credential (Page 1) - Basic Level - Intermediate Level - Expert Level - WordPress Developer Credential (upcoming) (Page 2) - Backend Development Focus - Advisory Board Involvement - Benefits of Credentials (Page 1) - Standardized Knowledge Levels - Competitive Advantage - Customer Confidence - Credibility and Authority - Challenges and Concerns (Page 1) - Affordability and Accessibility - Regular Updates - Balancing Community Input - Avoiding Gatekeeping ## Table of Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Types of Credentials - WordPress Management and Design Credential - WordPress Developer Credential (upcoming) 3. Benefits of Credentials 4. Challenges and Concerns 5. Balancing Relevance and Continuous Updates 6. Making Credentials Accessible and Affordable 7. Involvement of Advisory Boards 8. The Impact on Hiring and Contracting Practices 9. Conclusion 10. Thought-Provoking Questions 11. Auto-tagged Themes and Topics 12. Index 13. References 14. Future Research 15. Hypotheses 16. Methodology 17. Implications 18. Logical Validity ## References: No references were provided in the original article. Further research may be required to cite relevant sources on the topic of WordPress credentials and their implications. ## Future Research: 1. Investigate successful strategies employed by other open-source projects in implementing certification or credentialing programs for their communities. 2. Conduct surveys and interviews with WordPress professionals to understand their perspectives on the importance of credentials in the hiring process and how they perceive its impact on their careers. 3. Explore the effectiveness of periodic updates in maintaining the relevance of credentials in rapidly evolving technology spaces. 4. Analyze case studies of certification programs in other industries to identify best practices in balancing affordability and accessibility without compromising quality. 5. Investigate the long-term effects of WordPress credentials on workforce development and the growth of the open-source community. ## Hypotheses: 1. WordPress credentials will positively influence the hiring process by providing employers with a clear standard to assess a candidate's qualifications, leading to more informed and efficient hiring decisions. 2. Affordable and community-built credentials will increase inclusivity and diversity in the WordPress ecosystem, attracting a broader range of professionals from various backgrounds and skill levels. 3. Periodic updates to credentials will ensure professionals stay relevant and up-to-date with the latest WordPress technologies, improving the overall quality of services offered in the ecosystem. ## Methodology: 1. Conduct surveys and interviews with WordPress professionals, employers, and hiring managers to gather data on the current state of hiring practices and the perceived impact of credentials. 2. Collaborate with industry experts and the WordPress community to develop and refine the content of credentials, ensuring it aligns with the evolving needs of the ecosystem. 3. Monitor the adoption and impact of WordPress credentials over time, analyzing factors such as job placement rates, professional development, and customer satisfaction. ## Implications: The successful implementation of WordPress credentials could lead to significant advancements in the open-source community. By establishing standardized knowledge levels, credentials would streamline hiring processes, increase trust in service providers, and foster a culture of continuous learning. Moreover, affordable and community-built credentials could promote diversity and inclusion, making the WordPress ecosystem more accessible to aspiring professionals. The long-term implications of such credentials could extend beyond Wo - Document Tags: [[wordpress certification]] - Summary: The Torque Social Hour is a weekly livestream of WordPress news and events. This week's guest is Talisha LeWallen from http://CertifyWP.com Due to bad weather in San Francisco, the stream drops abruptly about 25 minutes in. We apologize for that, but still think there is enough good information in this episode to help people understand CertifyWP's mission. - URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxjrcgGLjtU&ab_channel=TorqueMagazine welcome to the torque Social Hour aweekly live stream of Wordpress news andevents my name is Doc and I'm acontributor over on tortmag.io each weekwe have a guest joining us on the torqueSocial Hour to talk about uh this week'snews and events this week we are joinedby Talisha Luellen the CEO and founderof WP connects and the founder andpresident of certify WP to Alicia howare you doing todayI'm great thank you for having me yeahthanks for joining it is I'm going to start the show off and say it is a raresuper rainy day in San Francisco sointernet may come and go if you're uh ifyou're watching live hopefullyeverything's gonna go smooth and also ifyou're watching live you can if you'rewatching live you can join in with anyquestions in the chat and we'll try toget to them as The Show Goes On the maintopic today is going to be aboutcertification and I have been workingwith torque magazine for about 10 yearsalmost 10 years and I can remember even back at wordcamp San Francisco uh thefirst word Camp I ever went to Iremember this being a topic that thatcame up with the idea of like uhcertifying WordPress developers so thatwhen you were hiring a WordPressdeveloper you knew that they could dothe things that they said they could doand it was a contentious topic thenand over the years Talisha hasn't gottenany less contentiousyou know I think it really has in thelast couple of yearsum I reached out to a lot of people uh just to talk about if this was even thetime and space for it right now and mostthe people I talked to saw the benefitof having a credential or certificationand so I do think returning a corner onit being something that the word pressspace is really finding use out of orcould use in our spaceI I totally agreeumfor a long time it seemed like a verytouchy subject not one that was going toget very far I mean there was uh interested people and then people veryopposed and it seems like somethingchanged in the water or something andand now we're all kind of a little moreopen to it as a matter of fact duringMatt Mullen wig's state of the wordaddress there was a question at the enduh kind of bringing up this subject andMatt has always beensort of uh he's been against the ideaand kind of saying that he feels it goesagainst the spirit of Open Source likeit shouldn't be wordpress's job to uhverify people and for the first time he seemed actually open to the idea so likeum can you can you tell us why what isWordPress certification and then maybeyou can mention why people are for andwhy people might be against it yeah yeahI would love toum I think first the most importantthing to distinguish is the differencebetween a certification and a credentiala certification is just you took atraining and generally you have thispiece of paper and you're able to showfor 10 years that I took thiscertificate I have a certificate I completed the course here you go and inWordPressum certificates are not always going tobe the most beneficial just becausethings change all the time so taking acourse or being able to prove that youlearned something five ten years ago isnot going to be applicable in today'sum so with that a credential issomething that has to be um you have toretake the test every so many years youhave a board that showsum that these are the standards um of what we need to know in word in theWordPress space so having that thereum is a baseline so it's not just a Itook this 10 years later it's notrelevant anymoreum the credentials that we are buildingat certified WP will beum updated every few years there'salready a plan in place as something bigcomes outum that's going to be between thecredentialing up updates and upgradesI'm going to go ahead and apologize if you hear dog sparking somebody pullinginumso with that being saidthere are a lot of benefits tocredentials or even certificationsum if you are a developer and you'retrying to find a job you're able to gointo an interview or get contracts bystating that I know thisstandardized level of information rightnow if you apply at a job it's just I'ma WordPress developer and it doesn'texactly tell hiring managers or people that are looking to hire a contract whatis the level that you knowum are you able to work on you know thisXYZ site versus this site over here andhaving that credential there will helpyou be able to get those lines ofcommunication with hiring managers are alot better it also helps hiringprofessionals know who the bestcandidate is for their job so a lot offeedback that I've heard negatively it would be that it's almost gatekeepingbecause credentials do come with theprice tag certificates come with a pricetag you have to pay for the training soit's finding a way to make itum affordable for everyone and that'swhere certified WP is now certified WPfoundation and we're getting our 501 3Cso there are sponsorship opportunitiesand there are ways to keep it and makeit affordable for everyone so it's morethat and who in the space defines what knowledgeyou need to knowum WordPress is so open in that again itchanges so much what information itshould be deemed to be put in the yearso those are questions that um we havean Advisory board that are also goingover and figuring out and to make thatreally Community built and maintaincredential so there areum there are people that are stillagainst it and there will always beum but we're here to try to open and educate for the benefit and that thebenefits will hopefully in our opinionoutweigh the cons or the negativesokay yeah that's it that's interestingand um I hadn't really thought about thedifference between credentials andcertification I have been mentioningcertification well I've been I've beenswitching all the certification andy'all y'all are not offering thecertification no uh the the in processof what you're trying to do is going toend up with credentials but not acertification is that the right one yes we are building credentials so TheAdvisory Boardumthemes or they pick what needs to be inthe credentialum we're building it out they willapprove the exam questions they willapprove the credential itself so withthat too there is a learning piece thatcomes along with the credential do youhave to take the learning piece to takethe exam no you if you want to get thecredential and you've been in the space you're like I could take it you're ableto take the exam at any point just toget that credential levelum and that's where it's not exactlyjust this learning platform and whateverelse it's there and that learning is tohelp people be able to pass the exam forthe credential but um again thecredential will be updated every threeyears I believe is what the um the boardhas deemed to be adequate five years isjust too long and you know one or two iswhy a waste of time um so with the updates and stuff it'sjust going to be a full-time job whichis also the other reason why it's hardto build a credential in this space butit's doable and I think that it'll bevery beneficialso so yeah youum you're mentioning updates I thinkyou're you're referring to like the uhblock editor and the you know the fullsite editingum I can't imagine if I was credentialedtwo years ago that that couldnecessarily say that I could I couldactually use what has shipped in like 5.6 or or whatever like it's it seemslike the space has changed a whole bunchand to um to be fair that does not seemto happen often I mean there's alwayschanges in the WordPress space but thisis a major overhaul that is still stillchanging I'm hoping that two years fromnow it'll it'll look somewhat similar towhat it is now like it'll be better butlike I'm hoping it's not going to looktotally different again there's noreason that it should change sodrastically every two years but um like I said just as a arbitrary date like twoyears ago would be it would have been awhole different type of Wordpress itseems than than what we're seeing nowbut that seems to be leveling offhopefullyyes exactly and that's where you knowwith that major change from two yearsagoum we went ahead and put the plan inplace in case if there is this majorchange we don't like what do you doum because again even if the credentialif it changes what are you gonna do youstill have this but you're not up to date on this other stuff and that'swhere training platformsumRobbie at OS training pops into my headshe's on our Advisory Board like OStraining would be able to make um atraining to supplement that learningexperience until the next credentiallevel rolls outum and then when people startre-testing and taking the exams then itwill be up to date at that pointso it's a little bit of wiggle room andstuff can we talk about like the thetypes of credentials that were we're assuming like I'm assuming it's notgoing to be just you know you knowWordPress here's your here's yourcredentials it's going to be some sortof uh well yeah just just tell me aboutlike some of the different types ofcredentials you're always thinking aboutyeah so we're thinking of I'm going tocall them two tiershereum think of them as two towers we'regonna have one um the one we are almostdone building now uh the credentialI believe is going to end up being theWordPress[Music]um oh good good Lord management and designcredential WordPress management designso that credential is going to be forpeople obviously who are managing ordesigning a website um or multiplewebsites so that goes from the basiclevel there's a middle level and thenthe top tier so mastering all three ofthose exams gives you the broad categoryof the WordPress management and designcredentialum so base level is obviously going tobe that basic level knowledge we have atarget audience that will hit for that um and then all the way up to I'm theexpert of this credential I knoweverything that needs to go into hereum will fully know how to edit designand start a website from the ground upthen we have the other tier that we aregoing to start building here within thenext monththat is going to be for developers sothis side is going to kind of touch on afew developing things but we will have afull credential from the bottom up on the back end and really how to gointo that I can't tell you what fully isinvolved in there because that is not myuh Forte but we brought people onto theAdvisory board that can advise and helpus figure out what information reallyneeds to go in there forum just the actual developers and againit'll have a three-step level coursefrom basic to expertand that's our that is our plan on that are there are there any other opensource projects that are uh on their owndoingum like credentials like thisnot credentialsumI believeuh what is that learn WordPressthere's a few other ones uh CourtneyRobertson is also on that team andthey're talking about buildingcertificates and thenthere's a few others I don't know ifit's open knowledge so I don't want to blow anybody's uh I have talked to someother people in the WordPress space whoare thinking about building acertificate or credential level andbasically theirs will just end up beinga Capstone to ours if it ends up gettingbuilt and approvedum through their companies so I'm veryexcited I mean it's it's out in thespace it is happening I'm very excitedto announce that it is happening and itis coming out and that we're able to work collaboratively with these othercompanies and organizations to helpbring these credentials or certificatesarounduh but but I guess what I was wonderingwas uh outside of Wordpress do you knowof anything that might be similar likeis there a similar thing happening inJavaScript or you know on Joomla oranything yes yeahum JavaScript already has certificationsumand credentials sorry they have they Iknow of a credential that they haveum which is fantastic um I work with the company so WPconnects um kind of ties into thesecompaniesum there is a I'll call them a brothercompany to mine to WP connects and theyrun a JavaScript course that they trainthe military with and it is a JavaScriptcredentialum and there are other Tech ones Ibelieve Joomla also has one and AWS hastheir own certification for the Amazonweb hosting space so there are is coming into these uh credentials and a lot ofit isjust the Baseline knowledge and again ithelps the hiring Partners it helpspeople be able to obtain those jobsum and the research I've done into itand talk toumI talked to one of the eight not theperson who created the AWS certificationbut somebodyumin their hiring sector but either way wegot to talking about why do you wantcredentials and it talked about how it just really gives your spaceum I don't want to say more Authoritybut it's just more saying like we arehere and our people are educated andwhat I keep going back to isif you get on Fiverr you can look upWordPress design or I need a WordPresssite and you getwhat thousands it seems like I don'tknow how many people that are on thereandI started asking about okay so what iswhat is this website going to look like where is this and they're saying thatthey're WordPress certified and I'm likethere's not one you know there's thisdoesn't actually mean anything tosomebody that's looking to build awebsite and so I'm not saying that thosepeople are not fantastic at buildingwebsites I am sure there are severalthat are top-notch and amazing but as acustomer looking at a website that justdoesn't mean anything to me whenever I'mlooking to try to get this done andbuilt and it's what is your expertiseand knowledge so that's where a lot of um I.T communities are really going tois being able to provide their customerswith our people are certified and theyknow what they're doing on your sitethey're not going to break it like me ifI'm working on my side I break it so Iwill take my own credential to say Aaronnot have to call oh Michelle frechetteto fix my website all the timeuh if anyone's uh just joining us uhwelcome thanks for for watching feelfree to ask any questions in the chatI'm talking to Talisha lewallen uh theCEO and founder of WP connects and the uh creator of certified WP uh foundationand we are talking about credentials inthe in the WordPress space andum this is a this is I'm showing thesite now uh this is a brand new projectit is not yet it's still getting workedout as you've mentioned several timesthere's a group of people that you'rerelying on to help Provide support andexperience and knowledge in terms ofwhat what should credentials look like for bothum front-end uh you know usage or designand you know management to like back-endstuffum I'm kind of curious like this is thisis still a new project do you know likewhat the first steps are going to be forrolling out and do you know kind of likewhen you might be rolling out the thosestepsum so the next step that we are onbecause we haveum tier one of the WordPress managementdesign so that front end um credential is built I'll say builtand The Advisory Board still has to gothrough and approve it um we have ameeting this month so and tier two isalmost complete and then they'll work ontier three so those are our steps tojust getting the basic knowledge and theexams questions not only Built butapprovedum and then we're just finding the bestum I'll say LMS system to use for thecredentials and then they'll be ready tobe pushed out um and with thatumwe are getting it and I know this iswhere some of the questions in thecommunity have come up aboutum the military because I keep sayingthat we're going to get it DOD approveduh the Department of Defense and thatcomes in for WP connects so to be ableto train our military personnel overhereum and help them get these jobs withinthe WordPress space and progress throughthe wp connects training programs it has to become DOD approved so then we areable to get the funding and the militarypersonnel are able to use the credentialso that's where that comes in but italso gives just a little bit morebacking um thinking of of it as anaccreditation and we're still looking atif that is the best option in theWordPress space is to get the credentialaccredited but it just gives it a littlebit more backing andum just this is real and this is notsomething that we just created you knowback here in the back room and said thisis the WordPress credential it's actually being approved buy a body oftrainers that are stating yes this is Idon't want to say uh this is good enoughfor our military but that is the purposethat we're using it for at WP connect sothat's where some of the confusion iscomingum from RN that's definitely coming forme whenever I'm saying DOD certified uhwe're getting questions on is this onlyfor the militaryit's for everybody in the WordPress uhcommunity in space but it's allowing metoum train and really get our active duty military personnel to their nextcivilian careersyeah I know that there's a lot ofsimilar processes if you uh spend timeworking on an accessibility or spendtime working with teachers ornon-profits they all have kind of verysimilar things to I think what you'retalking about with the Department ofDefense having like like you have tomeet these standards or whatever andworking with those is is going to helpout a lot and I can totally understandum we'll definitely talk about WPconnects later but uh WP connects uh has connections with likeum uh helping educate uh former militaryI think into into working with WordPressso that's definitely where you're youknow you've got that experience that Ican see where that drive is going um tokind of make sure that those two thingsconnectum have have y'all had any conversationskind of similarly with WordPressofficial like it's kind of hard to thinkofum what exactly WordPress officialsbecause I keep thinking of like uh Mattmullenwig but like uh is there he's he said that he's you know more open to theidea than he has been before has therebeen any kind conversation aboutofficial integration with the WordPresscore project in some form[Music]with um josepha I believe last month inDecember so we have been having thoseconversations and she is talking to Mattabout what we are doing andum just some other people in the space as well so there are those conversationsand they're trying to find and figureout where they want to land within theprojectum and it just kind of goes back towhat we're creating verse also theirideas and how this just really fits infor the WordPress Community as a wholeso I'm veryumI think we received very good feedbackthe last time that Michelle and I got tosit down and speak with Joseph and I wasvery excited after our conversation and it ended up leading into another meetingwith WordPress VIP about somethingsimilar so it's it's definitely gettingaroundumif there's an answer we weren't told noand stop doing what you're doing so youknow there at least yet there's thatum but yeah we have definitelyum reached out and we want them to beinvolved in whatever capacity they feelcomfortable withumso yeah like I said we're trying to buildum certified WP as a non-profit sothere's always that side to it but wewant this to be a community built andmaintained credentialum we're definitely not trying to keepdefinitely not trying to sit here andsay you know what we know is best wewant to have those conversations withpeople and if they have questions we aremore than open to sit down and havemeetings and discuss what we're lookingat andum where we're going with itso uh you know I mentioned that like 10 years ago this conversation washappening in a similar way and I believethat sort of the the common responseback then was well if if anyone is goingto give out credentialsum for for WordPress uh you know itshould be maybe the the WordPresshosting companies maybe like they're thethey're the ones with the Deep Pocketsand and like the influence so like theycould they could say hey if you're goingto be hosting on us here's a list oflike credentialed people and how thatsystem um I can you can you talk a little bitabout like why this would maybe not be II get the vibe that this isn't reallysomething hosts should be doing I feellike that was just like sort of passingit on and I also still don't know if Ithink that WordPress course should bedoing it can you tell me like why whysomebody like certified WP would be in abetter spot than than those twoAlternatives yeah I think that uh we'reable to give an unbiased opinionum you know we're not getting paid we're not gettingum with the hostum you can sit there and say use thesepeople and it's a pay-to-play situationI'm not saying that I'm not saying thehost would do that I'm just saying itcould it could happen to where theycould be more of a gatekeeping situationum to where with certified WPit's completely unbiased we have a setofum regulations and there are policies inplace per also DOD standards that keep it completely unmarked umwhat's the best way to put thatdisagrees with their their exam resultsthere is a process that goes throughthat and it takes them intoum that Advisory Board and board ofdirectors for uh certified, Torque Social Hour: CertifyWP, Torque Magazine, 01gpkb5gnc459tv53m88c6ncg2.