SAS Certification As a Tool for Professional Development

If you had told me a year ago that I would write a paper about SAS certification for the Western Users of SAS Software 2014 Educational Forum and Conference, I would have been very surprised!  I became a SAS Certified Professional long ago, and that certification expired–long ago!  However, in the past six months, both my son and a friend have become SAS certified.  In the process, I learned a lot.

Now Andra Northup and I have written a paper titled SAS Certification As a Tool for Professional Development.  Doing the research for this paper, we gathered information and opinions both from SAS users and from experts at SAS Institute.  Here are some interesting things I learned:

• Over 67,000 SAS certificates have been awarded.
• The volume of tests taken has doubled in the past three years.
• The first SAS certification was in Europe and required passing 3 two-hour exams.
• Since 2006, certifications no longer expire, but are tied to a particular version of SAS.
• Some people claim that the Advanced exam is easier than the Base exam.
• The pass rate for the Advanced exam is, in fact, higher than for the Base exam.
• At only $55, the online practice exam for the Base exam is a bargain, and it’s good for six months.
• The SAS Programming 1: Essentials online self-paced course is FREE.

If you are going to the conference, I hope you will attend our presentation Thursday, September 4, 2014 2:00-2:50pm. If not, then you can download the paper here.