I believe that certification is limited to 1) Lawson employees and 2) employees of Lawson partners

This is one of my Lawson pet peeve subjects, and you'll have to take my opinion for what it is:

Anyone choosing a consultant based solely on Lawson's certification process should do so with a very skeptic eye. The reason is this: only Lawson employees and employees of Lawson's partners may become certified.

So, for someone to say they are 'certified' means either that they currently or previously worked for Lawson or a partner, and took the classes/tests for which certification is granted.

Since neither independent consultants nor a client's employees can be certified, that obviously limits the pool of 'certified' consultants, eliminates a lot of people who may know the product better, but due to the way Lawson defines 'certification', these folks are not 'certified'.

However, you have to realize that being 'certified' doesn't mean that someone knows the product any better than a non-certified consultant. Nor do they perhaps know the product in a broader sense of the rest of the applications or IT infrastructure. For example, a consultant may say they are 'certified' in ProcessFlow, but not know anything about Mercator/Ascential DataStage or Websphere MQ and how to use the best tools for an interface.

I would agree with the above quote. I am a Lawson certified professional and it doesn't mean that I know Lawson better than anybody else. I believe this is not only true for Lawson but all other so-called certifications. Anybody can study for a test and pass it with limited knowledge on a subject.

There is a section for Training on support.lawson.com where you can view and register for all the various training classes promoted by Lawson University. You can download course catalogs and schedules here too. This is where I would recommend you begin your search.

I am not an Lawson Employee, whether we can do certifications in Lawson or not?

I totally agree with the lack of opportunity for independent consultants or those who work for organizations that are NOT Lawson partners. I believe this offers a less than hands on view of Lawson from the end user's perspective. I come from a user background where I have a lot of painfully self taught skills. I would LOVE the opportunity to gain furthere knowledge and obtain the appropriate certification.

The support.lawson.com web site is available only to an existing Lawson customer, employee, or partner. If you are a consultant working across software lines, you would have to tap into a client's support resource.

If I were Lawson I would offer training to anyone who is willing to put the time in.

In my experience with multiple software products I have found that most certifications and/or trainings offered by the vendor are little more than reading you the manual and working through a small, perfect example product. Because of this, I put very little stock in certifications. The most beneficial information I have ever received for Lawson products has come from CUE and user groups, especially the classes taught by other clients.