Linux Professional Institute Names Prosoft Learning Corp. as North American Affiliate

Business Wire, April 5, 2006

PHOENIX -- The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), the world's premier Linux certification organization, announced that it has chosen Prosoft Learning Corp. as its new Master Affiliate for North America.

"We are delighted to welcome Prosoft to our worldwide team of affiliates. Their successful history in providing highly innovative IT training and certification solutions makes them an ideal partner for our efforts to continue to spread Linux professionalism in North America," said Jim Lacey, president and CEO of LPI. Lacey noted that Prosoft brings many benefits to LPI, including a commitment to industry standards, a track record in gaining acceptance for vendor-independent certifications, and acknowledged leadership in ICT workforce development through collaborative efforts with state governments and school districts.

Benjamin Fink, president and CEO of Prosoft, is equally pleased with the potential of this new partnership with LPI. "We are truly honored and privileged to be chosen as the North American Master Affiliate for LPI. For years we have witnessed steadily increasing demand for Linux-related training and certification, and we believe that the LPI exams represent the best, most rounded and most comprehensive solution for certifying Linux professionals. We look forward to continuing LPI's global success through the development of an aggressive growth strategy for their Linux certification program in the United States and Canada."

Larry McArthur, LPI's recently appointed area operations manager for North America and Asia-Pacific, stated that Prosoft and LPI may explore other sub-affiliates to engage in the North American market. The following factors made Prosoft the ideal candidate as Master Affiliate in this crucial market:

--An expertise in bringing together multiple stakeholders. LPI was attracted to Prosoft's success in developing the CIW Advisory Council, which brought together representatives from industry, academia, government and not-for-profits in order to develop standards for job-role certifications. Bringing these various constituencies together has led to a widely accepted certification that has been endorsed by governments and trade associations around the world.

--Expertise in managing vendor-independent, job-role certifications. Prosoft's CIW program is one of the leading vendor-neutral IT job-readiness certifications, while the CTP (Convergence Technologies Professional) certification, which Prosoft manages for the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), is the leading certification covering convergence technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). For CTP, Prosoft was able to enlist the support of industry leaders such as Intel, HP, Cisco, Avaya and IBM.

--A worldwide distribution channel. Prosoft is one of the world's largest distributors of IT-related educational content to corporations, learning centers and academic institutions. Prosoft distributes content from offices in North America, Asia and Europe to an extensive network of thousands of partners and authorized content providers.

LPI is an internationally recognized, vendor-independent organization advocating and assisting the professional use of Linux, Open Source and Free Software through the certification of Linux professionals. Established as a non-profit organization in 1999, LPI is community based and supported. LPI's certification program is delivered worldwide in seven languages at more than 7,000 testing locations and is supported by an affiliate network spanning five continents.

LPI's milestones in the last year include:

--More than 100,000 exams delivered worldwide (http://www.lpi.org/en/news_item/131).

--More than 30,000 professional certifications delivered worldwide (http://www.lpi.org/en/news_item/139).

--The world's first IT certification to receive professional accreditation (http://www.lpi.org/en/news_item/126).

--Top 10 IT certification for two years in a row (http://certcities.com/editorial/features/story.asp?Editorials ID=95&page=3). (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

--Highest salaries for certified Linux professionals (http://www.certmag.com/images/CM1205_Figure1.htm).

About Linux Professional Institute

The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) develops professional certification for the Linux operating system, independent of software vendors or training providers. Established as an international non-profit organization in 1999 by the Linux community, LPI develops accessible, internationally recognized certification programs that have earned the respect of vendors, employers and administrators. LPI's activities involve hundreds of volunteers and professionals throughout the world in many different capacities, and the group encourages active public involvement through mailing lists and its Web site at www.lpi.org. LPI's multilevel program of exams is administered globally through Thomson Prometric and Pearson VUE testing centers. LPI's major financial sponsors are Platinum Sponsors IBM, Linux Journal, Linux Magazine, Maxspeed, Novell, SGI and TurboLinux, as well as Gold Sponsors, Hewlett-Packard and IDG.