[Bf-education] Certification structure

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

(This is actually also a reply to several mails as being sent out here,  
I ended up with so much text it was better to make it a general  
proposal)

Since we don't have anything to offer yet we have to keep a bit focused  
on feasible steps. In my opinion a good first step could be limited to:

- to develop good course material (like Blender Fundamentals course  
book)
- develop a training program for trainers, and a means to certify them  
as such

We should assume that would-be trainers already have practiced training  
themselves, e.g. are experienced educators, so our training program  
should be targeted to teachers within training facilities (or schools)  
to help them getting new business.
Artists who subscribe to such 'certified' trainings then don't get an  
official BF certification, but some diploma that fits in the offering  
the training facility already has.

In my experience, a good target audience for becoming 'certified  
trainers' is not within our user community, nor is the target audience  
for attending trainings really in our user community. Setting up a good  
training program should essentially break the barrier to get Blender  
accepted for many professionals out there, who are not interested to  
participate in time-consuming web-based communities.

I like how Discreet has structured it  
(http://www4.discreet.com/training/). They've defined 4 levels of  
certifications for trainers;

- Fundamentals - Intermediate - Advanced - Expert

For each level a trainer has to do a course and an exam in an official  
training center. Additionally they get offered a wide choice of  
training material, but it's up to them to structure an actual user  
course.
We don't have to copy the 4 levels, but for simplicity/feasibility we  
could start with defining the structure for how to certify "Fundamental  
Trainer" certifications.

Main benefits of this approach:

- it minimizes amount of work for the BF (we only have to certify  
trainers)
- a certification becomes valuable and defines status (only few have it)
- maximum freedom for teachers to structure courses
- clear business model; BF only will 'make money' from certifying  
trainers and (optional) educational material. For the rest it's up to  
the teacher to define how to do the business locally

-Ton-

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Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton at blender.org  
http://www.blender.org