SIP has become the most important protocol in voice and unified communications today for handsets, PBX systems, and gateways, while enterprises and service providers continue displacing traditional digital and analog lines with SIP trunks. You cannot move into the future without SIP knowledge.

For many IT professionals working in communications, that begs the question: Do I need a SIP certification?

Based on results of SIP School's SIP Survey 2015 survey, industry sentiment would seem to make "yes," the answer. When asked about the importance of SIP certification, an overwhelming number of respondents signaled its importance to them, as shown below.

The SIP School offers SIP training as well as a globally recognized vendor-neutral SIP certification. More than 18,000 students have gone through The SIP School training, which has the support of prominent manufacturers and organizations in the telecom industry. The Telecommunications Industry Association, for example, has given its official endorsement of The SIP School for SIP training and certification."

Through The SIP School, SIP certification involves a series of online SIP training modules that cover everything from the basics of the protocol to its use with and in firewalls/network address translators, session border controllers, trunking, security, the cloud, mobile, UC and more. Course details, including class outlines and demos, are available at The SIP School here.

Once candidates have completed the modules, they take an extensive online test meant to assess their understanding of SIP and its application.

"The SIP training program is specifically designed not only to educate students on SIP but teach them how to work with confidence in situations that may be completely new to them including troubleshooting SIP implementation problems," explained Graham Francis, CEO of The SIP School.

That said, networking professionals who already have SIP knowledge can take the certification exam without having worked through the SIP training modules. In either case, the SIP School Certified Associate (SSCA) certification is acknowledgement that the recipient can work effectively in SIP environments with VoIP, video, UC and collaboration.

As further testament to the importance of SIP certification, the organization recently awarded its 5,000th SSCA certification. The recipient, Mike Utley, is a senior consultant for corporate sales training with Level 3 Communications.

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