[never_snapped]

I would think this is a bit different as these students come out creating things and in the process (hopefully) creating value for their company. They're becoming the people who enabled those certificates, and companies, to exist in the first place.

Whereas the certifications you described enabled a person to write reports, recommend products of a particular vendor, and maintain software/hardware configurations -- a job which is still being automated and taken over by developers without certification, particularly in smaller companies (devops).

Only time will tell though.