New Generation Certification Lifecycle Policies
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The new generation of Microsoft Certifications—Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP), and Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD)—have lifecycle policies in place to ensure that Microsoft Certification remains an indicator of up-to-date, relevant skills on Microsoft technologies.
Your MCTS, MCITP, or MCPD certifications will retire when Microsoft discontinues mainstream support for the related technology. Typically, mainstream support is discontinued 7 to 10 years after the initial product release. When support ends, your related certification will retire.
| • | Find out more about the Microsoft Support Lifecycle |
When a certification that you have earned retires, the record of your certification moves to a section on your transcript for retired credentials, to allow you to retain documentation of your experience with Microsoft technology. After a certification retires, you can no longer create or download related materials, such as welcome kits, certificates, and logos. All related exams that you have passed remain listed as "passed" on your transcript, as they do today.
Frequently asked questions about certification lifecycle policies
| Q. | Why is there a retirement policy for certifications? |
| A. | The primary reason is to help ensure that Microsoft Certification is an indicator of up-to-date, relevant skills on current Microsoft technologies. Hiring managers must have confidence that someone who holds a Microsoft Certification is current and engaged with Microsoft technologies, even if they themselves are not experts on each certification. |
| Q. | Are you going to start retiring any of the existing credentials (MCDST, MCP, MCSE, MCAD, and so on)? |
| A. | No. These new policies apply only to the MCTS, MCITP, and MCPD credentials—the new generation of certifications. There are no current plans to retire any of our existing credentials. |
| Q. | Is there a recertification policy for Professional Series certifications? |
| A. | In our initial communications about the Professional Series certifications, we announced that a "refresh" or recertification of the MCITP and MCPD credentials would be required within three years. This policy has changed. To address the needs of our worldwide customer base, the updated policy is to retire a certification when mainstream support for the related technology retires, as described at the top of this page. There is no action required from you if you earned a Professional Series certification before the policy change; the updated policy applies to your certification, which will be valid until mainstream support for the related technology retires. |
