On 7PHP.com today there's a new interview posted, a different kind of one from their usual "community spotlight" series. In this new article they talk with Michelangelo van Dam about the Zend Certified Engineer test and any advice he can offer to those wanting to take it.

This is the 1st set of Zend Certification Tips and Advice to help anyone taking either of the two Zend Exams powered by Zend Technologies: the Zend PHP Certification Exam and/or the Zend Framework Certification Exam. The aim being to help people who want to sit for those exams and inform them what it is all about & what to expect by hearing it from (pro) PHP Guys who have already been through it, that is.

There's a long list of questions in the interview covering a wide range of things about the test everything from what its about out to some of Michelangelo's own opinions about the tests:

• Can you briefly give us an idea of what ZC is about, what it tries to achieve?
• Can you give us an idea of what need to be studied and what kind of stuffs we should expect..etc
• Parts of the modules that you think is more complex and one should pay special attention to?
• What TWO questions can you remember that you can share with us
• Do you recommend PHP guys to get certified?

Check out the answers to these and more questions in the full interview.

MTA (publisher of the php|architect magazine) has announced today that they have added a new training course materials/functionality to help you pass the Zend Framework Certified Engineer certification Zend offers.

We're proud to announce that we will be releasing two new products dedicated to the recently announced Zend Framework Certification. The first is a brand-new version of Vulcan, our exam simulator, built specifically for the ZFCE exam. Like our current ZCE Vulcan, the new version will provide a realistic simulation environment in which ZFCE candidates will be able to test their knowledge of the exam topics before taking the actual exam.

[...] In addition to the new release of Vulcan, we're happy to announce that we are hard at work on a new training course that will expand on our existing Zend Framework training course to provide specialized training for the ZFCE.

The new training will launch November 5th and will be open to all, including those with licenses for the previous version of Vulcan. The training course will be launched later on this fall.