Industry certification and academic degrees: complementary, or poles apart?

University ICT degrees give students a well-rounded, broad base with which to move into industry. Graduates may however find that without specific product skills many employers may be reluctant to hire them [9]. One method of credentialing for specific products that has become predominant, described as a "parallel universe" [1], and that many advocate as being complementary to and may integrate with academic degrees, is industry-based certification. Some however, see industry certification as product-specific training, and academic degrees as education, with each being completely different markets. This discussion informs and advances that debate.