There are two separate things to judge here and they deserve very different scores. The first is the free training library, which is among the best things any security vendor has done for the field. Fortinet publishes a large catalogue of self-paced courses, with lab access, available to anybody who registers, with no requirement to be a customer or a partner. For someone trying to break into network security without an employer paying for anything, that library is a real ladder rung.
The content covers firewalls, secure SD-WAN, SASE architecture, security operations and cloud security, and while it is taught through Fortinet's products, the underlying concepts are the concepts. Someone who works through the secure networking track understands policy-based routing, inspection modes and the trade-offs of TLS interception, and that knowledge survives a change of vendor. The second thing is the certification programme, and here I have a real complaint. Fortinet ran an NSE 1 through NSE 8 numbered ladder for years.
It then retired that in favour of named credentials, FCF for fundamentals, FCA for associate, FCP for professional, FCSS for solution specialist and FCX for expert. On 15 July 2026 it reversed that decision and restored an NSE 1 through NSE 8 structure, now expanded to eight levels across four tracks, with existing FCP and FCSS holders automatically mapped onto the new numbering. Two new industry certifications in OT security and MSSP security were added at the same time. Every credential has a shelf life and every programme needs revision, but this is the second full renaming in a short period, and the cost lands on the people who hold the credentials.
A certification's value comes from a hiring manager recognising the string of letters on a CV. If that string changes every two or three years, the recognition never compounds. Someone who passed NSE 4, watched it become FCP and has now watched it become NSE 4 again has spent years holding a qualification whose name has been a moving target, and will spend the next few years explaining the sequence in interviews. That is not a trivial cost and it is entirely self-inflicted.
The pricing also moved. Under the restructure a single-exam certification costs $400 while two-exam certifications are $200 per exam, and from November 2026 the NSE 7 exams, NSE 7 recertification assessments and the new industry exams each sit at $400. Recertification assessments mean the cost recurs. For an individual paying out of pocket, a full track to NSE 7 plus recertification is a meaningful sum, and it is worth pricing the whole path rather than the next exam.
The academic and veteran programmes deserve credit. Fortinet has put real effort into placing this curriculum into colleges and into retraining schemes, and the free training makes that possible in a way that a paywalled academy could not. Whatever my view of the certification churn, a great many people have got into security careers through this material who would not otherwise have had a route. Three point eight.
Take the free courses, which are genuinely excellent and unusually generous. Treat the certification ladder as a useful but unstable asset, price the full path including recertification before committing, and keep a record of what your credential was called when you earned it, because you will need it.