Zend Technologies has announced the availability of Zend PHP Certification for PHP 5, enabling developers to test and certify their expertise in new areas such as Object-Oriented (OO) PHP programming, creating and using web-services with PHP, as well as PHP security.

“We see broad adoption of PHP 5.x as the preferred version of PHP for professional software development,” said Andi Gutmans, VP of Engineering and Founder at Zend Technologies. “We support this trend with updates to all of our tools to include full support for PHP 5. Upgrading our certification program is a logical next step.”

Introduced in July 2004, the Zend PHP Certification Program has become the industry standard certification for PHP. The certification is designed to test a developer’s level of PHP knowledge based on questions that reflect real-world scenarios. Specific topics covered include application design and theory, PHP basics, PHP 4/5 differences, as well as OO PHP, security, XML and web services. Once a developer is certified for a specific version of PHP, the certification will never expire.

Zend PHP 5 Certification will be highlighted during the upcoming annual Zend/PHP Conference. At this conference, slated for October 31-November 2, 2006, attendees will be able to participate in Training and Certification sessions hosted by Zend.