Will my ITIL v3 Foundation certificate expire?
Answer:
No. ITIL® v3 Foundation certificate will never expire.
Therefore once you get the ITIL® v3 Foundation certificate, you will be able to include the credential in your resume for the rest of your life.
That being said, the version of ITIL® will change. As you can see, there is a “v3” for the ITIL® Foundation certification scheme which is the short form of “3rd version”. In fact, the full name for the current ITIL® Foundation Certification is “ITIL® Foundation Certification”, the “2011” version is an upgraded version from the original “v3” version (so literally speaking, there are 4 generations of ITIL® Foundation Certification so far).
However, the fact that ITIL® Foundation certificate would not expire would create a lot of confusions as people normally just refer to “ITIL® Foundation” without the edition.
Please be reminded that when you intend to search for exam prep materials for your foundation exams, do make sure the materials are based on the latest ITIL® version.
In the past, there are “bridging programs” provided to help ITIL® Foundation certificate holders to easily upgrade from the previous version to an updated version (e.g. from v2 to v3). However, for the ITIL® Foundation Certification, there is no bridging programs provided, meaning that the certification holder need to re-take the new ITIL® Foundation Certification exam in order to get the most updated credential of ITIL® Foundation Certification.
It is not known when ITIL® v4 will be published as Axelos (the organization behind ITIL®) has not made any announcements on that. But judging from the fact that Axelos does not update the ITIL® from v3 to v4 in 2011 would reveal that maybe the ITIL® is already quite polished that only minor changes would be needed. Maybe v4 will never come.
If you are considering the ITIL® Foundation Certification, v3 2011 version is the one to go for now.
