Good news for everybody. VMware Education really want to push adoption of the new VCA certifications. I blogged about the certification a few days ago here
In short the VCA is an entry level official certification from VMware. It fits just below the normal VCP. the VCA is available for three tracks: Datacenter Virtualization, Cloud and EUC. You can do the certification from home or work. You just need a web browser!
Normally there is a fee for the exam. But all through January the following code should work.
The coupon code is: VMRT6B404C7B (Expires January 31st) (50% discount)
UPDATE: It is not possible to get 100% discount anymore. But the key above will give you 50%
You can sign up for the relevant VCA certifications here: http://vmware.com/certification
The VMware Certified Associate certification is a great opportunity to show you have skills in both Datacenter, Cloud and EUC
I took the VCA-DCV and VCA-Cloud using the above key and passed it. All done in less than one hour and it was free.