Grey Market Training

Overview

ITIL® has become a defacto standard for many governments and corporations around the world. This standardization is driving demand for certification. Grey Market training companies have sprouted-up to meet this demand and are taking advantage of unsuspecting people. The Official Accreditor is slowly hunting these predators down and eliminating the Grey Market.

IP INFRINGEMENTS

AXELOS takes infringement matters seriously. Please alert us to any suspected and threatened infringement and grey market matters via email to: infringements@axelos.com so that we can investigate and take appropriate action.

Accredited Training Organizations (ATO) Requirements

Must use an Accredited Trainer, i.e. ITIL® Expert
Must meet the Accreditation Guidelines and pass periodic audits by an Exam Institute
Must use Course Material that complies with the latest Syllabus released by the Official Accreditor to ensure you studying relevant material for the exam and not memorize all 3000 pages of the ITIL® Publications
Must pay Intellectual Property licensing fees so that we can use ITIL® Publication content
Must follow an auditable Quality Management System (QMS) to ensure continual service improvement

Contact us if you want to see proof of each one of these requirements

Examples of Grey Market activity

They forge a PDF Certificate: Click to see a forgery, we found this forged PDF on the Internet. Always ask for a Paper Certificate and Pin.

They are not Accredited: They claim to be accredited on their website but they are not. Their accreditation may have expired but they are still claiming to be accredited and selling courses. Call the Exam Institute to verify.

They offer Course ONLY: Student is told to take the exam elsewhere. Training materials cannot be assessed for effectively passing the exam by the Accredited Courseware Provider.

They offer Exam ONLY: They tell the student to take the course elsewhere. Accredited organizations must track a accredited trainers pass rate as past of the Quality Management System (QMS). Because the exam is taken elsewhere there is no way of determine the associated trainer.

They do not have ITIL® Expert Accredited Trainers: It is a mandatory Accreditation requirement to use Accredited Trainers. They hire anyone to deliver the course. They basically read the slides.

They cannot provide an ITIL® Expert Accredited Trainer that can speak to you: All they use is sales reps. They will tell you that a trainer is not available at this time.

They do not have revision number on their courseware: It is a mandatory Accreditation requirement to put the syllabus version number in the Accredited Training material. Look for the release number on the certification slides. This will tell you what syllabus the ATO is using. If you don't see a version then it is probably Grey Market. For example 3.11.5.4.32 means ITIL® Edition 2011, Syllabus 5.4, Serial number 32. This is a mandatory requirement for any Accredited Training Organization.

They accept unverified Training Confirmation Forms: Exam Institutes do not verify authenticity of training. They will accept forged Training Confirmation form and give your the exam.

They do not offer a Paper Certificate or Pin: Only Accredited organizations offer a Paper Certificate that cannot be forged.