Welcome to the latest installment of  Press Pass, where CertMag reports new and recent certification news by blowing through as many industry press releases, blogs, dispatches, messages in a bottle, etc., as we can fit in one post. We’ve got the highlights and you can click straight to the horse’s mouth for more information.

Is your certification pull-dated?: Certification commentary frequently focuses on the importance of becoming certified for the first time, or of getting a new certification. It’s quite often the case, however, that earning an IT certification from the provider of your choice is not a one-and-done situation. Technology changes constantly, and plenty of certification programs require you to keep up in order to stay certified. Sagacious tech blogger Ed Tittel started thinking about the importance of keeping credentials current after perusing a policy document, and shares some recertification ruminations in a post at GoCertify. Among his more trenchant observations is a comparison that likens certifications to dairy products: Even if you keep them refrigerated, they don’t last forever. What’s that smell? It could be the 10-year-old certification in your filing cabinet.

Assessing the new CCIE: Speaking of keeping pace with evolving certification requirements, Cisco Systems officially ushered version 4 of its CCIE Routing and Swtiching credential into a front-porch rocking chair at the Sunny Acres Old Certs Home on June 4.  So if you’ve been putting off getting the scoop on CCIE R&S v5.0, well, it’s finally time to come to grips with the new reality. Just in time to bring you up to speed, Cisco trainer Bruno van de Werve has taken to the Cisco Learning Network blog to explain the ins and outs of the newest version of the high-level credential. Van de Werve expresses sympathy for update-weary and revision-bedraggled techies, but counters with a telling quote from former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gen. Eric Shinseki: “If you don’t like change, you are going to like irrelevance even less.”

Time to get trained: How much do you know about enterprise-level IT governance? Would you like to know more? The yearlong Training Week program conducted by certification provider and IT industry group ISACA hopscotches across the country, addressing a progression of topics as it moves from city to city. The next silicon hotspot to fall beneath its crosshairs is Seattle, and the five-day seminar to be presented there will address the topic Governance of Enterprise IT. The weeklong event, to be held at Seattle Waterfront Marriott Aug. 11-14, will feature four classes: Introduction to Information Security Management, Governance of Enterprise IT, Foundations of IT Risk Management, and COBIT 5: Strategies for Implementing IT Governance. Prospective attendees should check the company training budget: It’s a cool $2,695 ($200 discount for ISACA members) to register for the class of your choice.

Get off his cyberlawn: He’s not quite old enough to be eligible for a senior citizen discount from most venues and retailers, but comedian Jerry Seinfeld, whose odometer rolled over from 59 to 60 in April, is not exactly the guy you remember from endless Seinfeld reruns. Looking distinguished (he’s gone grey), but sounding as lively as ever, the King of Comedy dropped in at WIRED magazine this week to share some tips about social media etiquette and other niceties of online and in-person interaction in the digital age. For example, strapping a GoPro camera to your noggin is for extreme sports only — leave it a home if you’re headed to a first date. And have you ever wondered about the appropriate response to encountering an indiscreet photo posted by a colleague on Facebook? You probably shouldn’t be holding your breath for the launch of Jerry Seinfeld’s new tech blog, but it’s fun to have him drop in for a visit.

The kids are all right: How old do young learners need to be to grasp advanced tech topics? There’s a lot of room for debate in this arena, but there’s no denying that high school-age learners have taken enormous strides in the past decade. Certification is only one measure of IT savvy, but the number of certifications awarded to high school students is unquestionably skyrocketing (credit homayouni). A new post this week at Microsoft Learning pins that anecdotal observation to some hard data. Guest blogger and high school tech teacher Katherine Schmit essentially asserts that high school students are doing better than ever at assimilating technology. The only limitations on their ability to learn, Schmit suggests, are the ones adults put in place.

Lifelong learning: Getting back to where we started, recertification is apparently a  hot topic this week. Over at VMware Education and Training, guest blogger William Huber beats the drum for continuing education through recertification. Huber, aka VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) No. 81, got started on certification as a high school student and it’s been driving his career ever since. He writes in his post that he doesn’t want his skills to get rusty, and with good reason: Citing another oft-heralded benefit of certification, Huber says his annual income doubled after he completed his VCDX program in 2012.