Why we’re asking Mendix developers to fly like pilots

Pilots don’t prove once that they can fly and then stop. In the US, a pilot has to complete a flight review or an equivalent evaluation every 24 calendar months to act as pilot in command. Airline pilots go through recurrent training once or twice a year. The reasoning is simple: without recurrent training, pilots who proved themselves at the start could let certain skills lapse and become rusty.

We’re not flying anyone at 30,000 feet. But the logic carries over. The platform changes, the way we work changes, and so do the skills we need.

Mendix 11 is a good example. It brings AI across the whole development lifecycle. Since then, Studio Pro can act as an MCP server, so you can connect your own agent to the tools Maia uses. The 11.12 release is the first Long-Term Support release since 10.24. A developer who certified before all this has real credentials, but those credentials say little about today’s platform.

This isn’t just a Mendix problem. The World Economic Forum reports that employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030. Its survey also found that the skills gap is the most significant barrier to business transformation.

So we’re redesigning certification so it shows not only that you once passed, but that you’re still current. We’re doing it in stages. Here is what that means for everyone involved.

For individual developers: your daily work finally counts

Stage 1…

…introduces a badge showing you’re ready to work with some of the latest Mendix 11 features. You earn it by completing mandatory learning and installing one of the latest Studio Pro versions. It sets you apart from people who certified once and never touched the platform again.

Stage 2…

…goes further. Certification will combine proven knowledge, staying up to date, and demonstrated experience. The point system you may know from downloading versions and committing will be redesigned around activities that actually prove experience. For most developers, that means doing your daily work. In stead of earning swag (yes that was possible once), you now earn credibility.

Some vendors handle this with expiry dates and renewal exams. For example, Microsoft role-based certifications expire after one year and are renewed by passing a free online assessment. Our approach is different. You re-certify by staying active in the platform and Studio Pro and by consuming and understanding updated learning and enablement material, not by sitting another exam. Your existing certificate stays too, because it still shows what you achieved. The difference is that you can now also show you’re current.

We’re also changing the exams to better fit the required capabilities in the area of AI assisted development. Fewer questions will test where to find things, and more will test whether you understand them. That shouldn’t make certification harder, but it should make it more meaningful.

For customers: a signal you can rely on

Mendix certifications are a standardized way to indicate a person’s level of experience, which matters for partner selection and staffing decisions on mission-critical projects. We also say that certified people inside a customer organization can be trusted to take part in or oversee a project, and later act as champions for a Center of Excellence and an internal community.
That signal is only as good as it is current. If you’ve ever met two people with the same certification level and noticed their real experience didn’t match, you know the gap. Adding proof of currency and experience narrows it. When you choose a team, or decide who will oversee your Mendix projects, the credential is more likely to tell you something true about today.

For delivery partners: differentiation that reflects real capability

For partners who help customers implement Mendix, certifications at higher levels are essential, and more quality developers make project success more likely.

For partners, the redesign offers a way to show that the team is up to date, not just certified at some point in the past. It also gives you a clear, profile-based view of where each developer stands against the requirements, it makes your investment in people visible to customers and it can help defining individual growth paths for your employees.

Furthermore, the capabilities of a partner’s workforce is and will even more become part of the partner tiering within the ecosystem.

For us at Siemens: a healthier ecosystem

Our Mendix developer community is large, and at that scale, a certification only helps if it continues to mean something.

We want certification to reflect real, current capability, because customers choose partners and staff projects on that basis. Linking certification to current versions and real activity also keeps our incentives aligned with what makes customers successful: people who build well on the platform as it is today. And since we’re moving in stages, we can learn from each step and adjust.

What are the timelines?

This October we introduced the Mendix 11 badge as part of the developer profile. Early next year we will start working with activity information which is going to be one of the pillars for the new certification. The exact cadence for badges and updated certifications is still under review, but you can rely on us to keep you updated on changes we are planning to implement.

More information

• Learn more about our certification programs
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