Today at 4pm BST (but also archived for later playback) Symbian are running a developer webcast focusing on the Accredited Symbian Developer (ASD) program /exam. ASD is an accredited exam program designed to test the skill / knowledge base of developers. After the exam has been taken a report is provided that allows you to quantify and individual or group's underrstanding of Symbian fundamentals.

 From Symbian.com  

This webcast will focus upon a means to assess the competency of those that develop software using Symbian C++.

Accredited Symbian Developer (ASD) is an examination which allows you to quantify the strengths and weaknesses of an individual or group's understanding of the fundamental concepts of Symbian C++. This data empowers a development team to address weaknesses and utilise strengths in order to reduce development time and enhance the quality of the software produced. ASD is also a powerful recruitment tool, it allows potential candidates to be efficiently and consistently assessed, and for technical managers to recruit with confidence.

In this webcast we will explain the uses, infrastructure and context of the Accredited Symbian Developer (ASD) scheme.

The webcast will be broadcast live at 16:00 BST on the 11th October 2006 and later archived for viewing at your leisure.

Webcast available here.

Symbian will also be launching and releasing an associated book at the Smartphone Show. The Accredited Symbian Developer Primer: Fundamentals of Symbian OS by Jo Stichbury (also the author of Symbian OS Explained). You can read an interview with the author on SymbianOne here.

"The Primer will explain the content tested in the Accredited Symbian Developer exam.  It will break down the subject areas examined in the online test and succinctly describe each concept as a series of exam objectives.  For a more in-depth description of those areas, it will provide references to other sources of information.

The book is intended to ‘prime’ the candidates for the examination by explaining what they need to know.  It is not intended to be a textbook for understanding Symbian OS in any depth.  It will use a number of deprecated exam questions to illustrate the typical style and level of questions asked in the examination.

The book is not typical of the current Symbian press range in that it will not walk through significantly sized code project examples nor provide a detailed, in-depth analysis of the fundamentals of C++ development on Symbian."