Nortel Simplifies its Professional Certification Programme
London (ots/PRNewswire)
- Path to Certification Offers More Choice and Flexible Courses Nortel(x) (NYSE: NT , TSX: NT) today announced significant updates to its Professional Certification Programme for IT professionals and enterprise channel partners. The updates include new initiatives designed to provide a faster, more flexible path to certification on Nortel's Enterprise product portfolio. Also, in response to customer demand for certified resources, Nortel Professional Certification Programme is expanding to include certifications in the carrier/service provider space.
As part of its ongoing strategy to simplify the way Nortel does business with partners and customers, the new Nortel Certification Programme is available throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); North America and Asia Pacific.
"The enhancements to Nortel's Certification Programme are key to helping customers and partners efficiently validate the skills they need to successfully deploy Nortel Solutions. By incorporating certification exams as part of classroom training we are saving time and money for IT professionals," said Scott Schauer, director, Global Certification, Nortel.
Partners will be offered two new sets of exams - Segment and Delta exams. As the name suggests, the Segment exams "unbundle" the certification exam and deliver it in segments. This provides a step by step or course by course approach making it easier for candidates to progress toward certification and tests the student's knowledge in more manageable segments.
Segment Exams can be taken at the conclusion of a training class or challenged at a testing centre operated by Prometric, Nortel's testing provider. A group of Segment exams associated with courses in any given training track will equate to an associated Standard, full-length exam. Passing the appropriate Segment exams will yield the same certification designation as the Standard Certification exam allowing candidates to work toward an exam requirement in a more detailed phased approach if desired.
"Nortel is definitely taking this program in the right direction," said John Lockhart, operations director, Unified Group, a Nortel channel partner. "Keeping my engineers' certification up-to-date creates excellent career opportunities for them and I feel very comfortable knowing I am investing my company time and money in a program that is pro-actively addressing the evolving needs of the IT community."
Delta exams have been specifically designed to test incremental knowledge and skills for a major new product release. Delta exams will be targeted toward individuals holding a Nortel Professional Certification at the previous product release. These individuals will be able to update their Certification by passing the relevant Delta Exam. Delta exams will be rolled out in conjunction with Delta training courses.
Candidates will now be able to take exams at Prometric testing centers or at the end of each leader-led class, the latter reducing the time away from the office. End of class testing will offer either the Segment Exam associated with the course, where one is available, or the applicable standard full length exam. Either choice of exams will be included in the price of the course.
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world's most critical information. Our next-generation technologies, for both service providers and enterprises, span access and core networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications, and help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people with information. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.
For more information about the new Professional Certification Program please visit: www.nortel.com/certification
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Further, actual results or events could differ materially from those contemplated in forward-looking statements as a result of the following (i) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's restatements and related matters including: Nortel's most recent restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements and related events; the negative impact on Nortel and NNL of their most recent restatement and delay in filing their financial statements and related periodic reports; legal judgments, fines, penalties or settlements, or any substantial regulatory fines or other penalties or sanctions, related to the ongoing regulatory and criminal investigations of Nortel in the U.S. and Canada; any significant pending civil litigation actions not encompassed by Nortel's proposed class action settlement; any substantial cash payment and /or significant dilution of Nortel's existing equity positions resulting from the finalization and approval of its proposed class action settlement, or if such proposed class action settlement is not finalized, any larger settlements or awards of damages in respect of such class actions; 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any reduction in Nortel's operating results and any related volatility in the market price of its publicly traded securities arising from any decline in its gross margin, or fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; any negative developments associated with Nortel's supply contract and contract manufacturing agreements including as a result of using a sole supplier for key optical networking solutions components, and any defects or errors in Nortel's current or planned products; any negative impact to Nortel of its failure to achieve its business transformation objectives; additional valuation allowances for all or a portion of its deferred tax assets; Nortel's failure to protect its intellectual property rights, or any adverse judgments or settlements arising out of disputes regarding intellectual property; changes in regulation of the Internet and/or other aspects of the industry; Nortel's failure to successfully operate or integrate its strategic acquisitions, or failure to consummate or succeed with its strategic alliances; any negative effect of Nortel's failure to evolve adequately its financial and managerial control and reporting systems and processes, manage and grow its business, or create an effective risk management strategy; and (iii) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's liquidity, financing arrangements and capital including: the impact of Nortel's most recent restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements; any inability of Nortel to manage cash flow fluctuations to fund working capital requirements or achieve its business objectives in a timely manner or obtain additional sources of funding; high levels of debt, limitations on Nortel capitalizing on business opportunities because of credit facility covenants, or on obtaining additional secured debt pursuant to the provisions of indentures governing certain of Nortel's public debt issues and the provisions of its credit facilities; any increase of restricted cash requirements for Nortel if it is unable to secure alternative support for obligations arising from certain normal course business activities, or any inability of Nortel's subsidiaries to provide it with sufficient funding; any negative effect to Nortel of the need to make larger defined benefit plans contributions in the future or exposure to customer credit risks or inability of customers to fulfill payment obligations under customer financing arrangements; any negative impact on Nortel's ability to make future acquisitions, raise capital, issue debt and retain employees arising from stock price volatility and further declines in the market price of Nortel's publicly traded securities, or any future share consolidation resulting in a lower total market capitalization or adverse effect on the liquidity of Nortel's common shares. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel's Annual Report on Form 10-K/A, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the SEC. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Contact:
For further information: Giorgia Casnedi, +44-1628-43-3117,
casnedi@nortel.com; Zoe Chan, +1-852-2100-4375, zoechan@nortel.com/