Are you smarter than your instructor?

Before booking an ITIL Foundation class with a training provider, don’t be afraid to ask the training company what level certification the instructor has earned. Surprisingly, many Foundation instructors only hold an ITIL Foundation certification.

Think about it: This means that the only difference between you and your instructor is that they took that very 40-question exam that you’re prepping for. And that’s it.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m investing time and money to take a class, I want my instructor to be head and shoulders ahead of me. I want to know that they’re committed to the subject matter, and they’ve put in the time.

Would you take your CCNA class with someone who only had a CCNA? No way; you’d expect your instructor to have much more “cred” than that. Why should ITIL be any different?

When an instructor only holds a Foundation certification, I can’t help but wonder why they haven’t earned anything higher. Were they too busy to put in the study time? Was it not a priority for some reason? Were the exams too expensive to take (which might be a symptom that the instructor’s employer doesn’t sponsor their career development)? Are they new to ITIL and simply haven’t had a chance to sit for the exams yet (and if so, do you want the newbie to be your teacher)? Or in a worst-case scenario, did they flunk the Intermediate-level exams? Of course, it could also be more simple than that: Maybe they’re not interested, or perhaps their employer doesn’t see the value. In any case, that’s not the person or company I want leading me through the oft-murky ITIL waters.

ITIL V3’s Intermediate exams have been around way too long for seasoned instructors not to have earned this certification by now. Perhaps I’m being a bit soap-boxy, but there it is.

Just some advice from your pal, Jill: If you find out that your instructor just holds a Foundation certificate, consider giving your hard-earned training dollars to someone else.