How globally recognized is a certification from SAS?
Over 45,000 customer sites around the world use SAS to give their businesses a competitive advantage. These businesses rely on employees with SAS skills. The graph below depicts the global dispersion of SAS credential holders. Certifications from SAS are sought after and recognized worldwide.

Congratulations to our latest SAS Certified credential holders!

Video Portal: Why are SAS credentials becoming more important?
SAS Global Certification Program Manager Julie Petlick explains.

8,000 newly certified SAS professionals predicted in India in 2009
In India the demand for qualified Business Intelligence (BI) professionals far exceeds the supply. SAS has partnered with NIIT – the global IT Learning Solutions Corp., known for its pioneering work in the field of IT education and training – to turn this talent shortage challenge into an opportunity. The end result will be thousands of new BI and SAS-certified professionals in the market with the skills needed to develop and deploy SAS.

“I firmly believe that this is a very significant initiative as this will result in the availability of approximately 8,000 SAS-trained and certified professionals – future SAS brand ambassadors – during the first year of the execution and has a potential of exponential growth,” said Sudipta K. Sen, Country Manager, SAS India.

The Little SAS Book: A Primer, Fourth Edition
Now in its fourth edition, The Little SAS Book has become a classic, helping many people to learn SAS programming. Topics include basic SAS concepts such as the DATA and PROC steps, inputting data, modifying and combining data sets, summarizing data, producing reports, and debugging SAS programs.

Thank you for your participation in Certification Magazine survey
Thank you to everyone who participated in the annual in-depth salary survey sponsored by MediaTec Publishing (publishers of Certification Magazine) and several industry partners. This survey is designed to gauge the financial impact of certification and experience on IT professionals. The Litchfield Group, an independent research company, is conducting the research and finalizing the data. We look forward to receiving the results later this year.

Will you be our 20,000th SAS Certified Professional?
As you can tell from reading the other stories this month, the SAS Global Certification program continues to grow. Each month hundreds of SAS users from around the world become SAS certified professionals. In coming weeks, we'll reach a milestone by awarding our 20,000th certified credential. It could be anyone around the world … could it be you?

The 20,000th SAS certified professional will be honored with special congratulations, including being profiled in SAS print and on-line publications.

We’re very close to awarding our 20,000th credential, so don’t delay in taking your SAS Global Certification exam!

"[T]he advanced certification shows that I have been qualified with SAS Base Programming and Advanced Programming skills… As a new systems analyst with my SAS background, I can easily start being productive at a new job... [T]he certification accelerates your SAS learning experience and confidence in SAS programming as you work hard to get the certification. It is like you have graduated from SAS Institute after you have received your certificate. Everything that you learned is fresh and you are ready to put yourself in the job market."
Lifeng Yang
Systems Analyst, Texas Education Agency 

2008 WUSS Conference
Universal City, CA
November 5

Predictive Modeling using SAS^® Enterprise Miner™5.2 exam events:

Heidelberg, Germany
Nov. 13

New York
Dec. 2

SAS Certified Base Programmer Credential for SAS®9:

Taipei, Taiwan
Nov. 27
December 26

We hope you enjoyed this issue of SAS Global Certification News. Have a question, comment or suggestion? Want to see something covered in the next issue? Simply e-mail the editor.