This report describes a new system of credentialing that has arisen in the information technology and telecommunications industries over the past decade. It compares this system to traditional higher education, identifying both similarities and dissimilarities, and points to some cases in which the two interact.... The summary section of this report emphasizes the major themes of the certification system and its relationship to higher education: 1. The system is global and operates in many languages. 2. The student, not the institution, is at the center of the system. 3. The system has brought competency-based education and performance assessment to a status they have never enjoyed within traditional higher education. 4. Certification replace neither experience nor degrees, and the IT system does not pretend to be higher education. the summary also indicates the critical need for more information on certification candidates and providers of course work, since the new system is now large enough to play a role in state and national planning for postsecondary education. (HoF/text adopted).