How to become a Certified SAP Specialist

One of the most popular questions our customer service team is asked is, “How do I become a Certified SAP Specialist?” followed closely behind by, “How do I become a certified SAP Consultant?” and, “How do I become an SAP FICO Consultant?”

What a lot of people do not understand is that SAP is a very in-depth, complex, software comprised of many, many modules. Saying that you want to be a Certified SAP Specialist or Certified SAP Consultant is akin to saying that you want to be a doctor – well, what kind of doctor?

There is no one, single, all-encompassing, overall certification for SAP Consultant or SAP Specialist. Much like doctors are broken down by specialty (Cardiology, Dermatology, Neurology, Pediatrics, and so on), SAP is broken down into “modules”, or areas of specialty. In fact, some of the SAP modules are so huge in themselves that they are further broken down by actual job functions.

One of the particular certifications people ask me about the most is SAP FICO Consultant – which, correctly written, is “FI/CO”, meaning “Financial Accounting & Controlling Module”. However, there are so many different aspects of the FI/CO module that there is no one, single, overall certification for “SAP FI/CO Consultant”, the module is broken down even further by subject area.

But I want to be Certified!

Please do not let the above information overwhelm you or discourage you! You can still be certified; in fact, you can earn MANY certificates – a certificate for each module or course you successfully complete. This makes the whole process more advantageous to you as it allows you to focus on a specific area for your SAP training and the certificates you earn will show in what specific areas of SAP you have completed training.

So how do I find these “modules” and how do I know which ones I need to study?

On our website, we have every single course that we offer SAP courses listed individually and available for purchase individually, and we also have a page where we have our courses grouped by what is called Career Path – this is where you can find an array of industries and job titles and see what courses are necessary to be fully knowledgeable in that particular position.

At first glance, some people seem overwhelmed by the Career Paths and will ask, “Do you mean I have to take every single one of the courses listed under this job title in order to become certified?” The answer is, no, you do not have to take ALL of those courses but looking at the courses categorized this way will give you a better idea of exactly what courses fall under the area of SAP you are interested in and weed out any courses that might not be relevant to your SAP learning goals.

So where do I start my training?

Almost every classified advertisement for employment nowadays notes that the candidates must have SAP skills or experience, one might even say SAP is taking over the world and you either need to get on the SAP train or get left behind! Many people see this demand as an opportunity to start a whole new career or at least enhance their current career with SAP Certification.

Most people want to jump right in and hurry to get that certification and start making that “big money”, but some also don't realize that you really need to have the basic foundational skills of SAP to know how to use SAP before you start taking the specific career-related module training courses. We liken this to the need to know what the Internet is and how to use it before you can learn to use Chrome or Firefox or Edge, those browsers are useless to you if you don't know what to do with them. It is the same with SAP -  if you just start with a course in SAP Finance but have no idea how to use the actual SAP software, your chances of successfully understanding and learning that finance module is not very high.

That is why we recommend a structured training path for all students based both on their current level of SAP skills and knowledge (so you know where to start your training) and your ultimate SAP career goals (so you know in what direction to take your training).

And once you earned your certificate from us, you can proudly add it to your LinkedIn profile - watch how:

There is no shame in being an SAP newbie!

Often times when we ask a prospective student looking for SAP training if they have any previous SAP experience or training, they disconnect from our chat or just don't respond to emails. That got us thinking, does that question make some people feel uncomfortable or intimidated? We are an SAP eLearning company, that is what we are here for, to teach everyone who wants to learn SAP, from the very beginner to the advanced specialized user.

For those starting out with no previous SAP experience or training, the best place to start would be with what we call “The Fab Four” – these are the four standard, basic SAP skills courses that will teach you the SAP screens, commands, prompts, etc. to prepare you to move into the more specialized career-specific courses.

Show me the money!!

We also get asked a lot, “What kind of job in SAP will make me the most money?!” Our answer is usually, “When you find out, let us know!”

In all seriousness, the answer depends on many different factors including your skill level, your geographical location, and your desired industry/job title. The best recommendation we have is to search the Internet for SAP jobs in your area and see what the SAP salary levels are and what the job requirements are, i.e., what kind of SAP skills and certification are required.