Unity Certification

Unity Learn
1

Hi,

Is there any official type of unity certification? where? how much?

greetings,

2

no, at least not as far as I’m aware

3

As of today there is no such thing as becoming a “Certified Unity Developer” although it is something we’ve discussed. But alas, there’s nothing out there as of today.

4

Would likely be the first cert I would really be interesting to get … will keep an eye on the changes in that direction :slight_smile:

5

oohh :frowning:

i would be really nice if you have any cert. Especially for the academy

6

In case the Unity folks are polling through this thread: Certifications are lame. I like unity because you’re real. Certifications will be a step away from that. There is no Unity in “I got paper so I’m better than you and won’t teach you so that I remain that way”

Certifications = kill what makes you different.

7

possible but Cert = shows that you are at least fullfilling a given base level.

8

Umm, I did post above didn’t I? I am “Unity folks”… :slight_smile:

And I disagree wholeheartedly with what you said above. Do I think certifications are some golden ticket to success for us or you as developers? No. But do I think they take us away from “being real”? No, in fact I think that’s a bit out of touch altogether (no offense, it just strikes me as extremely odd to believe that). I feel quite confident that our community won’t suddenly devolve into your “I got paper” scenario, and if y’all do then you’re not half as good a community as I’d like to believe you are (and frankly, I think you’re twice the community I think you are! :smile: ).

9

as a producer point of view, i like the certificate idea. Even if it is a small one.

For example in the situation when hiring freelancers. With some sort of certificate i could trust that they get the job done. It doesn’t tell me how good they are, but it tells me that they can actually do something.

I’m not saying that people without certification would be less skilled or something, it just proves that some instance has given them some reliability.

10

Exactly my point (and I’m sitting on the other side of the fence as being a freelancer ). At the time I’m basically in the situation that I need to expand the amount of projects I worked on, create own showcase projects etc to show that I’m capable.

11

As an Apple Certified Pro in Final Cut Pro, I like the idea to have a similar certification is Unity, possible have levels here as well.

It would “force” people to write textbooks, manual like the Apple Pro Training books, and so there would be a kind of well structured basis for learning and taking exams. Will Goldstone’s book is a good example for that, however, such a traning book should cover more, eg. not only JS but C-sharp as well.

However, I see a significant problem here as well.

In order to create a certification system for Unity, the authors should be very careful. For example, what kind of certification could be created for such an application, where the knownig of the interface, the commands are really only the smallest part of the knowledge? In case of Final Cut Pro it consists the big part of the knowledge base, since it assumes in a way, that the FCP user is the editor, who works with the director, or a client. So he/she may get requests, and exercise them. The problem arise here: these requests are based on a “higher” knowledge, for example the grammar of edit, and these requests are executed by the editor, as an operator, just using the user interface, commands etc.

With Unity, I can have nice ideas, excellent game design capabilities, but if I get a partner who claims that he/she knows Unity well, there is absolutely no guarantee, that he/she can write for me good scripts, so he/she knows the “grammar of scripting”.

My point is, that if there will be a certification, it should go much further than a simple gui level knowledge, because it is not enough. I start to be familiar with the Unity interface, understand the logic, how it works, but for example I had absolutely no clues, that for a 2D line drawing game I should use arrays in the script… I know what is an array, theory, but that is not enough…

So, it should consits at the same time a complete Unity oriented scripting education as well. And I think for newcomers (like myself) that would be the hard part…

12

Very good point.

I’m not sure if this has ever been done before, but… perhaps some kind of peer review scheme would work better than certification for Unity? I’m thinking it would start with a panel of developers approved by UT as “experts”, perhaps with specialities in particular areas. Instead of taking an exam to get a certificate, a new user would submit a portfolio of work to the panel for approval. Then, if the user gets a certain number of positive votes from the panel, they get accepted as an “approved developer” or something.

I think this would carry more weight than a certificate, because it would demonstrate that the community of users think you are good with Unity, whereas an exam pass just means you have basic technical competence.

(This is purely an idea - no suggestion of UT actually doing anything like this for the time being!)

13

Perhaps a certification should focus on the proven ability to use the Unity API.

In a creative industry such as ours, a certification is never going to tell you how good someone is going to be. What it will tell you is if they are competent with the tool.

A user should be able to demonstrate:

  1. A thorough knowledge of the Unity interface all all the Editor Options
  2. An understanding of the code execution order
  3. Demonstrated ability to use the Unity API by solving common game related coding problems
  4. Whatever else

There should be a set of challenges that a person should be able to solve that not only show that they know how to use Unity, but also can only be done if the user already has a solid foundation in scripting/programming.

14

I think the easiest way for UT is releasing some sort of “literacy check-list” (no more than 10-15 pages) for their products and environment, starting from the free version of Unity.

It could help wannabe developers to build their knowledge by using your original idea of your product. After that, they can start making a portfolio and selling themselves.

15

a simple PDF would be fine.

16

Hi,

I realize the post is a bit dated; however I thought I could provide a link to a possible working solution for this, until an official direction is made.

Let me know if you have any questions on it.

Thank you,
Chad

17

I´m totally agree. The global industry needs a international framework job skills. like IGDA curriculum framework -this is a good example-. Autodesk, Adobe, etc. has an ATC (Authorized Training Centers) and well… yo can get a certified procedures for get an international job-skills for verify quality basic, intermediate and advanced job skill.

18

There should be a certificate in changing kids diapers too. :slight_smile:

19

If there’s no certification for Unity then how do you know if someone is qualified to teach the engine to students? Potential developers deserve someone who knows what they’re doing and a certification to me even if its a small one provides that kind of guarantee. I could be wrong though. The flip side of that is that Unreal and Torque don’t have certificate problems and they’ve been around longer.

I just need to know that when I show people what I’ve learned to do in Unity that I am not leading them off a cliff. Teaching someone a new skill is a huge responsibility, one that most people don’t give enough credit to.

20

“What games have you shipped?”