The heart of our program is preparing for the CGSC™ Professional Exam process. It is the one aspect of our process that no one else duplicates and no one else offers. While other standard IT multiple choice vendor exams are good and have their place, there is always the nagging issue of being just "paper-certified." Employers want more than just passing these standard exams as a criteria for employment. They want to have assurance that the job candidate is truly prepared. Usually job experience does this, but there must also be a way to offer more than job experience, to move above and beyond normal expectations.
The IT education and training marketplace has really struggled with this issue. The core problem is how can any national standard be developed that will be accepted as a new "norm" for the profession? We recognized this at the onset of the CGSC™ program development and after hours and hours of research and study arrived at the conclusion that the only way to do this was to do something no one else had ever attempted.
We began with the "time tested" process of a Ph.D. dissertation review process that is used by universities worldwide and adapted it to meet our requirements. Like a Ph.D. Degree, our CGSC™ Candidates must go through a three-stage process to earn their certifications. These steps are: (1) Oral Examination (2) Written Comprehensive Examination and (3) a Lab-Based Defense of Skills by "Peer-Review."
Because each CGSC™ Level builds on a foundation of the prior level, the CGSC™ candidate "grows" and "develops" to a professional maturity that is simply unmatched by any other process or program, and it is this "development process" that we believe employers will seize upon as the "proof" they are seeking that a job applicant is truly qualified.
How it Works?
When a CGSC™ candidate arrives for the first part of their CGSC™ Exam, they have already been certified by the IT Vendor themselves through the normal and traditional process. They have taken the time to deeply and thoroughly study through training manuals, reference kits, and other published books and white papers so that they can "answer" questions put to them by their CGSC-IE™. If they pass this stage they then move to the written-comprehensive exam.
When the CGSC™ candidate begins this stage, they have one day of written "open-book" research and writing so that the CGSC-IE™ is satisfied that the candidate is very familiar with the literature in the field, and understands how to find answers and solutions to complex and sometimes very challenging situations. The candidate has full and complete access to all resources that would normally be available to them "in the field" to provide an in-depth answer to the question(s) presented. It also demonstrates that the candidate can understand the methodologies of problem solving and can develop a clear and coherent structure to their solution(s). All candidates must learn to write according to the APA (6th Edition) style of writing and research.
When the CGSC™ candidate has completed the first two stages, then they demonstrate their actual "field" skills, knowledge and abilities performing tasks and resolving issues in a lab environment with their CGSC-IE™ observing and noting the steps they take to resolve the issues presented to them.
When the CGSC™ candidate has passed all three portions successfully, the candidate has now earned their CGSC™ Professional credential and the process is complete.
