{"id":45775,"date":"2021-02-16T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T13:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/?p=45775"},"modified":"2021-02-11T16:08:58","modified_gmt":"2021-02-11T21:08:58","slug":"500000-certified-users-a-program-that-has-changed-the-lives-of-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2021\/02\/500000-certified-users-a-program-that-has-changed-the-lives-of-many.html","title":{"rendered":"500,000 Certified Users: A Program That Has Changed the Lives of Many"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I\u2019m very proud to announce that on February 8th<\/sup>, 2021, we achieved the milestone of 500,000 Certified Users.<\/p>\n

A number of this magnitude certainly provide the opportunity to extract all sorts of fun and interesting numbers, and I\u2019ve run some reports in order to provide some of those below.\u00a0 But throughout the life of the SOLIDWORKS Certification Program we have always focused on the value that the certifications hold for the users who have earned them.<\/p>\n

Something that you may not expect to hear is that no one on my team is actually given a numerical goal in regards to how many certifications we issue in a year.\u00a0 We do, of course, have an idea of what kind of numbers to expect each year, but that\u2019s mainly so we can plan what we\u2019ll need for technology needs behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

One of the best parts of our job is getting emails from people letting us know how having one of our certifications helped them.\u00a0 Emails from students telling us that they were able to get an interview that led to a job offer because they had a CSWP, as well as emails from out of work engineers telling us that the certification, they have helped them in the same way.\u00a0 And of course, we also get emails from engineering managers and employees letting us know how earning certifications have helped them improve productivity.\u00a0 So, to the 500,000 of you, thank you for being part of our not-so-little family!<\/p>\n

I\u2019d also like to say a huge thank you to the people that have been integral to reaching this milestone.\u00a0 To my predecessors Mark D, Dave P, and Jeremy L, thanks for building such a strong foundation for us to continue build on.\u00a0 To Mie and Mattias from our technology vendor Tangix, your creativity and desire to provide us the most efficient tools possible not only changed the way we delivered our exams, it\u2019s also what we\u2019re able to use to keep expanding.<\/p>\n

To the internal team at SOLIDWORKS, from marketing, to the subscription team, the events team for letting us participate in the World Conference every year, and the executive team, thank you for being a part of this achievement.\u00a0 To my boss Ian, thanks for your continued support and guidance and always focusing on the continued success of the program.\u00a0 Finally, to my team who are without a doubt the key component of our success, a big thanks as well.\u00a0 Avelino, Daniel, Yannick, and Junko; it\u2019s a pleasure getting to work with you every day.<\/p>\n

Note: When composing this post, the more I listed out the key events I wanted to cover, the longer the post got!\u00a0 So, if you\u2019d like to read a bit about the things that got us to 500,000, then continue reading below!<\/p>\n

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A look back<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1998 when the SOLIDWORKS Training Program was expanding along with the rapid adoption of SOLIDWORKS Desktop software, a need arose to validate that people taking the training were actually learning something.\u00a0 In late 1998, the very first\u00a0 certified SOLIDWORKS Professional (CSWP)\u00a0Certification was issued.<\/p>\n

For the next eight years CSWP would grow to become something of a brand name in the SOLIDWORKS Community.\u00a0 It was an exclusive group to be in, and if you attended SOLIDWORKS World, you even got to attend a private event open only to other CSWPs in attendance at the conference.<\/p>\n

In 2006 we were seeing the impact that earning a CSWP Certification had on the careers of those that had earned it.\u00a0 We quickly understood that providing a similar certification to students around the world could help them greatly once they finished their degree, and began to pursue a career in industry.\u00a0 Out of this, the Certified SOLIDWORKS Associate (CSWA) certification was launched.<\/p>\n

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At the that time, the CSWP exam was very costly, and you had to schedule a time and day to take it at one of our reseller offices.\u00a0 You also had to wait a day for the results to arrive.\u00a0 If we were going to introduce a certification meant for anyone, anywhere in the world, then accessibility to our program would need to be truly global.\u00a0 So, we launched our online certification program.<\/p>\n

Accessibility not only included access to exams 24 hours a day, every day of the year, we also needed to lower the cost of taking exams.\u00a0 In addition to reducing the price of the CSWP exam by 80%, we launched an education provider program that allowed schools on subscription to be the delivery method and proctor for exams at their school.\u00a0 We now had the foundation to grow as much as we wanted.<\/p>\n

2007 through 2010 saw the addition of our first \u201cAdvanced Topic\u201d exams where we offered exams focused on specific parts of the software.\u00a0 In this case, it was the Sheet Metal exam.\u00a0 The list of Advanced Topic exams continued to expand to include the five different exams available today.<\/p>\n

In 2010 we added a new level of certification called Expert.\u00a0 The CSWE, as it came to be known, was different from other exams in a few new ways.\u00a0 It was the first exam to have prerequisites in order to be able to even take it.\u00a0 It also took a different approach to modeling challenges in that the exam focused on using a variety of tools and features to solve a question, instead of questions focused on different features.<\/p>\n

In 2019 we introduced the second Expert-level exam focused on Simulation.\u00a0 In 2014 we said goodbye to the CSWP Event at SOLIDWORKS World, and introduced the CSWE Event, which remains as the exclusive annual event at 3D<\/strong>EXPERIENCE World each year.<\/p>\n

As we move on from half a million certified users, we\u2019ll continue to focus on offering the best-in-class certification program in the CAD industry.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already passed 5,000 certifications for the 3D<\/strong>EXPERIENCE Works Portfolio Roles that we have created and released exams for, and the growth rate for these exams are outpacing the growth of our legacy desktop exams back when they were new.<\/p>\n

Onward to 1 Million!<\/p>\n

Some fun stats<\/strong>:<\/p>\n