Our company provides various types of Flex training, and based on the calls we are getting, it seems that people are confused by the word "certified" in the name of this particular program. So I’ll try to provide some clarification here. But let me start with explaining what the title Adobe Certified Flex Instructor means.  I’ll start with my own story.

In the summer of 2006 I’had been working with Flex at full speed. In addition to this, I was writing technical articles and was a co-author of an advanced book on real-world programming with Flex and Java.  Since I always enjoyed teaching programming, I decided to start teaching Flex.  And when you teach any programming language, you need a good text book or courseware. I decided to purchase Flex courseware from Adobe, complete all the labs and start teaching Flex to the masses.

When I contacted Adobe, they answered that the courseware is available only for certified instructors. This sounded reasonable, and my next question was, “How do I get certified?”

Since I was an early Flex adopter, had published numerous articles,  worked on the Flex book, knew people on the Flex team, had Java medals all over my chest, and was teaching programming at NYU, I was expecting the following answer from Adobe:

”Dear Yakov, we are so happy that you’ve decided to become a certified Flex instructor! We’ll overnight you the diploma, and please start teaching Flex now.”

The real answer was a little different:
”Yakov, get your butt on the plane and fly to Seattle next month. Sit through the five-day train-the-trainer Flex class, then prepare and teach a one-hour training session in front of the audience using our courseware, and if we like it, you’ll become an Adobe Certified Flex Instructor”. Well, the wording was more polite, but the meaning was the same.

And I did exactly this – took a week off of work, purchased the air tickets, booked the hotel, and sat through a very involved class at Adobe. I had a great instructor, Matt Boles, one of the original authors of Flex courseware. At the end of the class I ran a short class covering various units using the original courseware, and passed the test.

Since then, I periodically teach Adobe Certified training for our corporate clients and for the general public (my next public training is on the week after Thanksgiving in New York City).

A colleague of mine became a certified Flex instructor this year, and the requirements were even more stringent  – he had to become a certified Flex developer first , which is now a pre-requisite to becoming a certified Flex instructor.

So when you see an ad about Adobe Certified Flex training, this means that the class will be taught by a person who knows Flex, went through the certification process and  knows how to teach Flex using a well-done courseware right from the source.

The word certified here does not mean that you will become a certified Flex developer after attending this class, but it does mean that you can expect a high quality training that will help you not only in passing the certification exam if you choose to, but will also leave you with a very good understanding of how to create rich Internet applications with Adobe Flex. The market for Flex developers is extremely hot, so do not miss your opportunity. Find the Flex class near you, or get your butt on the plane…Well, you know the drill.