Lockdowns and travel restrictions due to COVID-19 have meant limited access to testing centers for most certification programs in much of the world.  We recently announced that remote exams would be an option in the near future for taking  some Red Hat certification exams.  In the meantime, many organizations are using the current situation as an opportunity for their teams to learn and build new skills in support of containers and Kubernetes. The need to provide the hands-on validation of these skills provided by Red Hat Certification has never been greater.

In order to address these limitations and needs, and to help organizations and IT professionals pursue the opportunities offered by these technologies, Red Hat is offering a new certification, Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers for Kubernetes to people who pass the Preliminary Exam in Containers, Kubernetes, and Openshift (PE180)

This certification will be given to those who have already taken the exam since it was launched in late 2019 as well as those who pass it going forward. This affordable certification offers IT professionals a remote option to strengthen their Kubernetes skills and embrace a DevOps mindset.

Level Up your container skills with Red Hat 

Containers and Kubernetes have quickly become the de facto solution for agile development and application deployment, and we’ve heard your requests for remote validation of these skills. We’re making the decision to Level Up Your Kubernetes skills an easy one by adding a new remote certification option.

Red Hat OpenShift is built on the trusted foundation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, providing the same security, stability and ecosystem that you know and expect. Just as Red Hat brought Linux to the enterprise, we offer the same with container platforms, your innovation platform for now and the future. And because containers are fundamentally a Linux technology, Red Hat is able to deliver an optimized path for you to add containers and Kubernetes to your core skills.

About Preliminary Exams

Red Hat Preliminary Exams are hands-on, practical exams that require you to undertake real-world, on-the-job tasks. PE180 allows you to test and demonstrate the knowledge, skills and abilities required to create new container images by extending existing images, manage images, including pulling and pushing images from a private registry, and manually run and link containers in a development environment.

Although preliminary exams are hands-on exams that test skills and knowledge of a subject area, these exams were primarily designed to gauge skills and demonstrate progress toward proficiency for those on a learning path toward certification - not to result in certification.   

In order to provide greater long-term consistency with the rest of the Red Hat certification program, we plan to launch the Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers and Kubernetes exam (EX180) in October.  This new exam will supersede the existing Preliminary Exam, which will be retired and no longer available for purchase or for enrollment within a Red Hat Learning Subscription -- Standard Edition.  As with our other certification exams, this new exam will be available in testing centers and classroom sessions (where available), and will also be available using our new remote exams delivery option.

Although we will retire the PE180 in favor of the newer exam, we plan to continue providing Preliminary Exams as a means to show progress towards proficiency with a technology.  We have seen considerable interest in the new Preliminary Exam in Red Hat System Administration I, which tests Red Hat Enterprise Linux fundamentals, and we plan to offer a Preliminary Exam soon covering Red Hat OpenStack fundamentals. These will remain Preliminary Exams and we may offer more Preliminary Exams in the future. The steps we are taking with the PE180 are unusual and unprecedented, but sometimes that’s what’s required in order to support our customers and communities of use.

Learn more

Preliminary Exam in Containers, Kubernetes, & Openshift (PE180)

First look at Red Hat Remote Certification Exams

Red Hat Training and Certification’s COVID response


執筆者紹介

Randy Russell is the director of Certification and leads the team that develops and delivers Red Hat's certification programs and exams.  A long-time proponent of performance-based testing, he has served on the board and as president and chairman of the Performance Testing Council, as well as having presented on this subject and others at industry conferences such as the Association of Test Publishers, the European Association of Test Publishers, CeDMA and TSIA.  Prior to joining Red Hat, Russell was a system administrator and programmer at an environmental economics consulting firm.

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