Certified Associate and Certified Professional exams now available for newest versions of AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Revit Architecture, and AutoCAD Civil 3D Software. SAN RAFAEL, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc., (NASDAQ:ADSK) , today announced that design and engineering professionals can become Autodesk Certified in AutoCAD 2010, Autodesk Inventor 2010, Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010, and AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 software. Becoming Autodesk Certified allows professionals, and companies boasting Autodesk Certified employees, to validate their industry skills and knowledge, demonstrate expertise and gain credibility. Customer demand has contributed to the huge growth of Autodesk Certification over the past year, increasing the number of Autodesk Certified professionals to more than 100,000. "With engineering and design fields becoming increasingly competitive, certification gives employees an edge at a time when having one is critical to career success," said Barbara Bowen, certification program development manager, Autodesk. "Autodesk Certification allows experienced designers and engineers to validate acquired skills by receiving recognition for their knowledge of specific Autodesk software applications." Certification can only be achieved after passing a rigorous Autodesk certification exam, or series of exams, and companies like Parsons Brinkerhoff, a planning, engineering, program and construction management, and operations and maintenance organization, recognize the importance of certification and of having consistent quality of skills company-wide. In 2008, Parsons Brinkerhoff partnered with Autodesk to bring certification to their designers. "We needed a reliable way to assess the skill level of our employees, ensure they were up to industry standards and equip staff for their next project," said Rebecca Arsham, CAD Training Manager, Parsons Brinkerhoff. "Our pilot program with AutoCAD and AutoCAD Civil 3D was extremely successful. With the Autodesk training model, our employees had an 83 percent and 71 percent pass rate on the Associate Certification and Professional Certification exams, respectively. Through this program, we have seen an increase in productivity and gained competitive advantage by marketing Autodesk Certified staff expertise on many of our projects."
