NEW DELHI, INDIA: Autodesk has launched its Professional Certification program in India. This program enables design engineering students and professionals to certify their proficiency at an Autodesk Certification Center. These centers have been established at a number of leading Autodesk Authorised Training Centers (ATCs) across 135 locations in India.
 
The Autodesk Professional Certification program is a global program offering a consistent standard for users and employers to rely on. Autodesk has identified key skills and knowledge required to form a baseline of knowledge and competence with Autodesk products. At this stage Autodesk is releasing two levels of certification; the Associate and Professional level.

The Associate level certificate is a multiple-choice examination designed to establish whether an individual has learnt the basic common functionality of the software. The next stage is the Professional level examination which further tests the candidate's ability to use the product effectively and efficiently under exam conditions. The Professional certificate exam is performance based requiring the candidate to use the software and manipulate design drawings to find answers to real-world questions, simulating the kind of work a designer would be expected to carry out.

The certifications are currently being offered for Autodesk products in Architecture, Engineering, Construction (AEC) and Manufacturing domains. The products include AutoCAD Architecture, AutoCAD Revit Architecture Suite, Civil 3D and Autodesk Inventor Professional (AIP).

Elaborating on the benefits of certification, Norman Buckberry, EMEA Training Manager, Autodesk said: "The Autodesk certification examinations will help create key benchmarks for students and employers to assess knowledge and capability in the design industry in India. Based on these examinations, employers can further plan and manage learning programs for their existing employees and set well-defined standards for recruitment. For students and professionals, it will assist in enhancing their capabilities to operate and benefit from Autodesk's advanced design tools. This in turn will increase the users' productivity and add the much-needed competitive advantage."

He further added," In the future, we will expand our certification program to include higher levels of specialist exams for assessing a candidate's ability to perform tasks related to specialized applications of the software."