Do you have CCNA or another Cisco certification? Do you need to renew your certification and are hoping the cost would be reasonable? Then this blog is for you!
In this blog, I’ll show you how you can earn credits from Cisco Continuing Education to renew your Cisco certifications.
This blog was created in September 2021 based on my own experiences, with the goal of sharing my knowledge (updated on Sept. 2022).
Please refer to the Cisco Continuing Education Program website for the latest information.
Essential Websites for Cisco Recertification
| Websites | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Cisco Continuing Education Program | [Important] The Continued Education (CE) Program and recertification policy are explained on the official Cisco website. |
| Cisco Recertification Policy | [Important] Official Cisco website describing the most recent policy update and the recertification policy. |
| Certification Tracking System | [Important] Webpage where you may check your certification status, and progress, and get digital certificates and badges. |
| Continuing Education Portal (CE Portal) | [Required] Discover Continuing Education courses here, and after successfully completing a course, claim the credits you have earned. After selecting a course, you will be redirected to Cisco Digital Learning to begin the course. |
| Cisco Digital Learning | [Required] A website where continuing education courses can be started. |
How long is your Cisco certificate valid?
“All certificates will be active for three years from the date certification is acquired,” states Cisco’s recertification policy. Hence, in the case of CCNA, it will likewise be valid for 3 years after passing the exam.
How to check the expiration date
You can verify your certification status at the Certification Tracking System, where you can find all of your active and expired certifications with complete information if you are unsure of when your certificate will expire. In order to remain certified, it is vital to follow Cisco’s recertification policy and keep your certificate enforced by you taking action before the expiry date.
How to recertify your certifications
Cisco offers the following ways of recertification methods:
- Take the exam
- Earn Continuing Education credits
- Combination of Exam and Continuing Education Credits (for applicable certification level)
I’m only covering the No. 2 method of renewing your certification with continuing education credits in this blog. Go to the “How to Recertify” section on Cisco’s Recertification Policy if you’re interested in learning about additional methods of recertifying your certification, such as taking a test or combining exams and credits.
Required credits for recertification
- Associate – 30 CE Credits
- Specialist – 40 CE Credits
- Professional – 80 CE Credits
- CCIE & CCDE – 120 CE Credits
How to find Continuing Education Courses?
You can check either the Item Catalog or the CE catalog. Both of them include the same information. Item Catalog however allows you to search for the most recent courses that are available by item name, item type, and category and then sort by the appropriate fields and credits.
Search from Item Catalog
Find the latest available courses at CE Portal under the “Item Catalog”.
Search from CE catalog
Browse the Cisco Continuing Education Program – CE catalog. All courses apply towards recertification, regardless of track or level.
What are some free courses?
Please note that the courses listed below are not all of the free ones available; rather, they are only the ones I am currently taking (or planning to take in the future) to renew my Cisco certification. (Courses are classified as Cisco Learning Services – Direct Delivery in CE catalog).
I’ve already completed a few of the required courses and have successfully earned 23 of the 30 credits needed for CCNA recertification.
As of August 12, 2021, they were available, but Cisco reserves the right to amend its courses at any moment without prior warning.
Remember, you don’t have to take them all. For CCNA, it requires 30 credits.
| Course Name | Credit | Topic | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| A-SDW-START – The SD-WAN Mastery Collection – Getting Started – For Customers | 6 | Cisco SD-WAN | 7hr38min |
| A-SDW-OVRLAY – The SD-WAN Mastery Collection – Deploying The Overlay Topology – For Customers | 5 | Cisco SD-WAN | 6hr25min |
| A-SDW-DATPLN – The SD-WAN Mastery Collection – Deploying The Data Plane- For Customers | 6 | Cisco SD-WAN | 6hr5min |
| A-SDW-APPEXP – The SD-WAN Mastery Collection – Managing the Application Experience – For Customers | 6 | Cisco SD-WAN | 7hr13min |
| A-SDW-CTRPLN – The SD-WAN Mastery Collection – Bringing Up The Control Plane Devices – For Customers | 2 | Cisco SD-WAN | 3hr10min |
| Securing Branch Internet and Cloud Access with Cisco SD-WAN (A-SDW-BRSEC) | 11 | Cisco SD-WAN | 16hr |
| Getting Started with DNA Center Assurance (A-DNAC-ASSUR) v1.0 | 4 | Cisco DNA Center | 5hr |
| Cisco DNA Center Fast Start Use Cases (A-SDA-FASTSTART) | 5 | Cisco DNA Center | 7hr |
| CUST-SDA-FUND – Planning and Deploying SD-Access Fundamentals (for Customers) v1.0 | 12 | SD-Access | 14hr |
Process of getting started and claiming your credits
- Step1Search for a course you want to take
Log in to CE Portal and go to “Item Catalog” and search for a course.
- Step2Click View Details
Results will display the category, credit, item type, and name of the course. Click “View Details” to start a course once you’ve discovered the one you’re interested in.
- Step3Launch a course at Cisco Digital Learning
Once you click “View Details,” you are automatically redirected to the Cisco Digital Learning portal where you may log in. You will see a page for the course you selected once your login has been successful. Click “LAUNCH COURSE” to begin your course.
- Step4Complete the course
Finish the course. Depending on the course you select, the length of the course varies.
A series of self-paced online video lectures are available in the free courses. You must pass an online test after watching all of the lectures in order to receive a certificate. After passing the test, the digital certificate will be generated. To use later, download the certificate.
- Step5Submit items (completed courses) on CE portal
After finishing a course with a passing grade, sign into the CE Portal and select “Submit Items”. It will display additional fields in accordance with the course name and item type you entered, such as uploading the certificate and certificate ID.
Click Submit after completing all relevant fields and verifying the agreement.
- Step6Items submitted will be reflected on My Dashboard
The submitted items will appear on My Dashboard.
Depending on the type of course and its criteria, the approval process may take longer or shorter (e.g. instructor-led vs. online lecture).Upon submission, completed courses will appear on My Dashboard (CE Portal), and earned credit will show up accordingly under My Item. A request approval email from Cisco informing you that the claimed item has been accepted may also follow.
- Step7Check the status of your certificate (recertification status)
Check your most recent certification status by logging into the Certification Tracking System.
Click “Cert Status & Download PDF” under “CERTIFICATIONS”. Your current and past-due certificates are shown. To view the whole status of your certificate, click “VIEW MORE”.
[Click to View] Your certificate will be recertified and its expiration date extended after your CE credits have achieved the necessary number of credits.
[Click to View] It is typical for earned credits to not appear right away in the Certification Tracking System and may take a few days to do so. In my situation, the tracking system didn’t show the submitted credit for 2 to 3 days.
As shown in the figure below, recertified certifications can also be checked on the Dashboard.
[Click to View]
The Cisco Continuing Education Program’s Governance section states that while certification is in place, courses completed for CE credit must be reported within 90 days of completion, and recertification will take effect from the day the last CE item was successfully completed and submitted. The main guidelines and regulations for CE are set forth in this Chapter. It is strongly advised that you read this part in order to fully comprehend the regulations and to get many of your queries answered.
Final Thoughts
Although there are many interesting premium courses available, I have focused on the free courses on this blog. So, it is definitely worthwhile to check through the catalogue and use such courses to recertify your certificates. Being able to use credits to recertify my certification at my own speed (and for no cost) makes me happy!
This continuing education programme encourages people to keep learning so they can take an exam in the future to pass for a higher level of certification in addition to allowing them to study new IT topics and use them to recertify their existing active certification.
Don’t allow your efforts to fizzle out! Let’s continue to study!
You may have observed that even after finishing the courses, the progress bar at the Cisco Digital Learning portal still reads 0%. This is such that progress/completion can presently be seen for only courses that have a star next to the sections, indicating that there is a summary challenge available to finish. As long as the courses do not have the aforementioned criterion, having 0% progress has no bearing on getting your CE credits.
Click to View
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