The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA--www.tiaonline.org) and Prosoft Training have launched the first industry-sponsored, proctored, common standards convergence technologies certification.

The Convergence Technologies Professional (CTP) certification is designed to serve as a prerequisite or introductory certification for product- and application-specific certifications from manufacturers.

TIA leaders who undertook this initiative form the CTP Certification Advisory Council with representatives from major telecommunications and IT companies such as Avaya, Cisco, First Telecommunications, IBM, Inter-Tel, Mitel and Siemens. The council will ensure the objectives of the CTP exams meet the expectations and requirements of the industry.

The first CTP certification exam validates basic knowledge of convergence industry standards and protocols, infrastructure, signaling, basic telephony, voice-over IP, convergence of computer and communications, and the skills required to perform jobs related to these technologies.

The certification is targeted at job roles such as field technicians, voice and telephony technicians, network administrators, system engineers, sales engineers and any other individuals interested in pursuing or advancing a convergence technologies career.

Prosoft Training offers IT content and certifications to help individuals develop and validate critical information technology workforce skills. ProsoftTraining will develop and distribute the official CTP curriculum, to include instructor-led courseware, Web-delivered content, and computer-based interactive assessments. Prosoft will also develop and manage the CTP Authorized Training Partner program, designed for organizations that want to offer official CTP education.

"We are pleased to introduce CTP to meet industry's need to conserve valuable training resources," states TIA president Matt Flanigan. "Suppliers need to focus on product specific training and channel companies want to minimize the time employees need to be out of the office for redundant industry training."