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Holders of Oracle’s database certifications will soon need to recertify if they want to continue calling themselves experts.

Oracle explains away the policy change as thus: “Our new policy requires you as an Oracle Database certification holder to demonstrate your knowledge with the most recent trends, techniques and best practices in Oracle Database technology”.

In other words, Oracle no longer thinks DBAs certified on databases older than Oracle 10g are up to scratch, and is requiring them to brush up on their skills, so to speak.

“Requiring recertification for database administrators,” Oracle explains, “strengthens the program and increases the value of your certification(s).” In other words, get it done if you want to remain certfied.

Oracle says the new policy will start on November 1, 2014, which means database admins will have a year to get themselves recertified before their current certificates expire on the same date in 2015. However there’s a sting in the tail, as 10g certs will be retired on March 1, 2015, which means it’s probably better to get things done sooner rather than later.

Here’s a list of the certifications that Oracle is planning to retire from November 1, 2015:

• Oracle7.3 Database Administrator Certified Professional
• Oracle8 Database Administrator Certified Professional
• Oracle8 Database Operator Certified Professional
• Oracle8i Database Administrator Certified Professional
• Oracle8i Database Operator Certified Professional
• Oracle9i Database Administrator Certified Associate
• Oracle9i Database Administrator Certified Professional
• Oracle9i Database Administrator Certified Professional – Special Accreditation: Managing Oracle9i on Linux
• Oracle E-Business Suite 11i Applications Database Administrator Certified Professional
• Oracle9i Database Administrator Certified Master

Holders of these certificates who consider them valuable or need them to fulfill their contractual obligations will therefore want to start thinking about taking a new exam sometime soon. And no doubt some training too. Let’s just hope your boss is willing to pay for it.