The Use of Simulations in Assessment and Certification

Many organizations require their current and perspective employees to obtain industry-based certification to maintain, and seek promotions. However, many certifications are simple knowledge based examinations that reward memorization instead of actual performance. With industry's increased reliance and demand to hire certified professionals, there is much more dishonesty, as well as incompetence, entering the system. This paper examines the issues and difficulties faced by organizations trying to hire IT staff based on current certification methodologies and recommends that IT assessments should be shifted from knowledge-based to performance-based examinations through the use of scenario-based simulations. It also demonstrates how to integrate simulations into certification and assessment testing using a proposed digital forensics certification as an example.