You Know How To Get Certified, But Do You Know How to RE-Certify??

It is absolutely amazing to me how quickly three years can just fly right by. It seems like only yesterday I passed the Enterprise Network Design (ENSLD 300-420) exam and completed My CCNP Journey. It was a long road. In fact, it felt like it took me longer to obtain the certification than how long I’ve held it for, but that’s just not true. 

I hate to say it, but it kind of snuck up on me. I realized only just earlier this year that I was going to need to recertify my CCNP soon. That’s when the pressure was on and the clock started ticking!

Arguably, life is much different today than it was three years ago (for all of us!) when I passed my CCNP exams. We were all stuck in our homes, our favorite activities (Like Cisco Live!) were canceled, and so much more. Today, life looks a lot more like the pre-pandemic days. I have a lot less time to study than I once did. (read: it hasn’t been as much of a priority lately, but that’s changing…)

But, none of that changed the fact that I still needed to recertify my certifications. In my line of work, at a Cisco Partner, holding current certifications is key. Partners need certified engineers because customers appreciate having knowledgeable engineers doing the work, and it’s required to maintain various levels of partnership with Cisco, and other OEMs have the same or similar practices.

I think it’s worth mentioning a few things up front:

• Under no circumstances will Cisco extend your certifications on an individual basis. The only time Cisco has done this was early on in the pandemic. Cisco gave EVERYONE a 6 month extension to their certifications because all of the Pearson test centers were closed, and Cisco had not yet deployed an at home testing strategy.
• It is your (and yours alone) responsibility to keep track of when your certifications will expire and handle the recertification process. Cisco will send a reminder 90, 60, and 30 days out from your certification expiration date to the email address on file. 

You can view the current status of your certifications, and update your contact information at any time by visiting Cisco’s Certification Tracking System.

How Does One Recertify?

In 2019 Cisco announced a massive overhaul to the Cisco Certification program that would begin officially in 2020. They changed EVERYTHING! The Certifications themselves, how you could certify, and even the re-certifying process changed. All for the better.

Today, Cisco allows you to recertify in a number of ways:

1. Take any exam of equal or greater value than your current certifications.
2. Complete qualifying Continuing Education activities.
3. A sweet, sweet combination of both 1 and 2

Previously, Continue Education was only an option for Expert level certifications. Today, it’s an option for all four major levels of certification – Associate, Specialist, Professional, and Expert.

Let’s take a closer look at Exam Options

For example, I hold my CCNP Enterprise, and if I wanted to take an exam to recertify it I could take the following exams:

A. Any one Core Concentration Exam, (Like Enterprise Core, Data Center Core, Security Core, etc) OR
B. Take two Professional Concentration Exams, OR
C. Take one Expert written exam, like the previously mentioed Core exams, or the CCDE written, OR
D. Complete an Expert level lab or CCDE Practical exam. 

If you’re someone that holds a CCNA then taking any qualifying Associate level, or higher, exam will renew it. Like the DevNet Associate, or a Core concentration, or Specialist certification exam.

There’s a big Caveat Worth Mentioning Here

If you hold your CCNP, and intend to renew using CE’s you must be aware that you may no longer be eligible to take the CCIE Lab. 

Before the huge update to certifications the CCNP written exams and CCIE written exam were two separate exams. Now, they are one in the same. The COR (ENCOR, DCCOR, SCOR, etc) exam for CCNP is ALSO the written CCIE exam for the given track. In order to qualify for the CCIE Lab you must have completed the current written test within 3 years. 

So, even though I have renewed my CCNP and it is valid for another 3 years it has been more than 3 years since I sat the ENCOR, so I am not currently eligible to take the CCIE Enterprise Lab until I take the current ENCOR exam again. 

So, depending on how seriously you’re considering the CCIE Lab you may want to weigh your certification options based on your planned path. Also, it’s not that I don’t plan on getting my CCIE, I just have a slightly different plan at the moment. (Insert evil laugh here)

What are “Qualifying” Continuing Education Activities?

I’m glad you asked, there’s a lot of options here! You can: attend training sessions at Cisco Live, complete instructor led or online based training courses, and help write Cisco exam questions.

How many CE’s do I need?

The highest level of certification you hold will determine how many CEs you need.

Mix and Match

You don’t have to choose just one! You can do a combination of the above activities to renew your certifications. For example, if you’re trying to renew your CCNP you could take one Professional level concentration exam and complete 40 CEs. You can see it all on this handy chart:

Taken from the Cisco Recertification Policy website. In fact, you should probably just book mark that: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/recertification-policy.html

How I did it

I was able to complete a number of qualifying activities to obtain a total of 89 CEs to renew my certifications. Remember, I only needed 80.

• First, I took an instructor lead, work sponsored, Cisco SD-WAN training course. After completing this course I earned 40 CEs.

• Next, I completed two FREE Rev Up to Recert courses. One worth 15 CEs and the next worth 16 CEs.

• And, finally, another work sponsored course from Cisco U worth 18 CEs.

Now, once you complete the training and CLAIM it, and the claim is approved the recertification happens AUTOMATICALLY!

Claiming Credit

One important piece to mention is that before you can receive any CE credits you must currently hold a valid Cisco Certification. If you are not yet certified then you cannot receive CE credit even if you complete this course.

If you take any training worth CEs then you need to make sure you get the credit. It doesn’t happen automatically either. When you take any training it is associated with your Cisco ID. After your training you’ll need to log into the Continue Education dashboard (ce.cisco.com) and claim the training. There should be instructions on how to claim the credits provided with the training you complete. But, the claim process will look a little something like this:

1. Login to the Continuing Education Dashboard at ce.cisco.com
2. Along the top navigation click on the ‘Submit Items’ tab

3. Enter in the details about the course you have completed. These details are very specific, so make sure you have all the details ready. Then click submit.

Some claims may be accepted and approved right away, other claims may need to go through a verification process.

It’s important to note that regardless of the day you CLAIMED the CEs the recertification date is retro active back to the date you COMPLETED the activity. Let me explain:

I completed the work sponsored SD-WAN training in May of 2022. I got lazy and didn’t claim the credits until a year later in May 2023. When I claimed them my certifications were renewed as of the end date of the course in May 2022, and NOT the day that I made the claim in 2023.

Moral of the story here is, don’t get a certification and then immediately do a bunch of CE training in the first year, and then wait two more years to claim it. That will not work out in your favor.

But, A.J., I have 2 CCOIDs, what do I do!

Yes, it’s not uncommon to have two Cisco ID accounts. I have a personal one to which all of my certifications are tied to, and I have one for work. Some of the CE training I completed with my personal account, while other training was work sponsored and, therefore, tied to my work account.

If the above scenario sounds like you then you need to complete one very import step: merging the two together.

If you don’t then Cisco won’t know that both accounts belong to you, and while you might have enough CE credits between the two to renew your certs, it only counts on the account that is directly tied to your certs, unless you merge them. To do this you need to open a ticket with the Cisco’s Learning and Certifications Centralized Support, they’ll take really good care of you, I promise! All you need to provide is the email addresses tied to both accounts.

What was that FREE Training you Mentioned Earlier?

Oh, Rev Up to Recert? It’s a new program Learning at Cisco started earlier this year. They are offering FREE courses that are worth about 15 CEs each. So, taking just 2 of these courses could renew your Associate Level Certifications!

Now, these are limited time offerings, so you have to complete the training and claim it during a specific window. As of this writing, the current FREE Rev Up to Recert course is Understanding Cisco Network Automation Essentials, on the all new Cisco U. This was a great course! It touched on topics like Automating with Ansible, NSO, testing with PyATS, and a ton more!

UPDATE: Cisco has recently removed the deadline from the Understanding Cisco Network Automation Essentials course – it will be available for FREE and you can earn CE credits at anytime! But, you can only earn them once.

Past topics include:

Enterprise SD-WAN – https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/learning-plan-detail-standard?ltui__urlRecordId=a1c6e00000AUecRAAT

Python – https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/learning-plan-detail-standard?ltui__urlRecordId=a1c6e00000AUqSGAA1&ltui__urlRedirect=learning-plan-detail-standard&ccid=revup-to-recert&dtid=email&oid=revup-to-recert-python

Security – https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/learning-plan-detail-standard?ltui__urlRecordId=a1c6e00000AUPSqAAP&ltui__urlRedirect=learning-plan-detail-standard

So, in total, Cisco has given away 60 free CEs so far this year! If you don’t want to miss future opportunities for free CEs then you can sign up for email notifications at this post from the Cisco Learning Networking: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/topic/0TO6e000002e4QmGAI/rev-up-to-recert-community

Cisco currently has no plan to stop offering the free CEs via the Rev Up to Recert program. So, you should take full advantage of these free CEs to recertify your Cisco certifications. If you have not done any of these courses then you’ve already missed out on 60 FREE CEs! Sign up today, and don’t miss another one!

What is Cisco U?

Cisco U is Cisco’s new MULTI-VENDOR learning platform. That’s right, it’s not just all about Cisco here. You can learn about other platforms as well, and you can earn CEs for the training that you complete.

Cisco U is not just a learning platform. There’s also a community of global users there to support you as well. If you have questions you can post in the community and get real answers, your peers. Cisco U can also recommend training for related topics to further enhance your knowledge on a given topic.

Right now through the end of July Cisco is offering introductory pricing on Cisco U subscriptions. You can even use Cisco Learning Credits, CLCs, to purchase subscriptions.

Take Aways

In this article I hope you learned more about the re-certication process and options before you. Do not wait until the last minute (like me!) to figure out re-certifying. Have a plan. Take advantage of the FREE Rev Up To Recert training being offered. If you’re close to rectifying, and need just a few more credits, consider getting access to a single class, or a subscription to Cisco U. You can view the courses offered and sort by CEs – I was able to find an 802.1x course worth 18 CEs for just $200!

While I try to be thorough, this article is not exhaustive! If you still have unanswered questions about the process you can head on over to the Cisco Learning Network and drop your Recertification questions here: https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/s/topic/0TO3i0000009WMqGAM/recertification

As always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to shout at me in the comments or Tweet at me, and thanks for stopping by! Cheers!