Why training is mandatory before certification

[User152938]

I understand Servicenow training needs to be purchased to get voucher code and without the code we cannot register for any exam. I want to know why?

Not long ago certification exam costed only $150, now why we have to buy $2400 training and that too for learning basic concepts. WHY is that necessary? if someone has 4-5 years of experience in Servicenow development, why they should waste money on learning basic concepts to get certified.

I am sure someone who can rely on their employer or some Corporate account for the training would not mind taking such courses. But what about people who are working as contractors and don't have any corporate to bear the cost. 

[Jace Benson]

When this was changing there were some tweets;

https://twitter.com/Nowsupport/status/1014278703495467008

My thoughts; It's a ploy to get more money. 

Partners need certs to be certain levels(bronze, silver, gold, platinum)

That used to be $150/cert/person, so the old cert set up had 3 certs, CSA, CIS, CAD.  So ~$500/person

The new cert set up is ~$2000/class, and $100/yr/cert to maintain and when I wrote about it on my blog, there were 9. 

so say a company of 100 needs 75% to get whatever level;

When	People	Certs	Class Cost	Total Class Cost	Exam Cost	Total Exam Cost	Annual Recertify Cost	Total Recertify Cost
Mid 2018	75	3	$0	$0	$150	$33,750	$0	$0
Now	75	9	$2000	$1,350,000	$150	$101,250	$100	$67,500

I would love to have the certifications be more approachable so they actually mean something but they just aren't worth it unless your a contractor or consultant.  If you're a contractor its just more reason to hike your rate, and in my opinion, justifiably.

Reach out to training@servicenow.com and maybe they will let you take the exam w/o the course.

[User152938]

Thanks Jacebenson!! I did not know about re-certification cost. Information you provided is helpful. Now it seems worse than I thought.

I think it is pretty steep price hike -  from $150 to $2400. I did send email to training@servicenow.com and their response was not helpful. They just said training is mandatory and there is no alternative. I am ready to spend money on course as well, but not for basic concepts. If they offer course for advanced concepts and allow us to use that voucher for certification, that may be justifiable. But offering basic training to trained professionals so that they can get certified is just a rip-off.

[Jace Benson]

My estimates were off a little above and makes it harder to calculate the re-certify cost or delta cost.

It's not 100/year its 100/3 delta exams per cert aka per release.