This is valid question for someone new to Perl, but a certificate's value depends only on how accurately it reflects the holder's knowledge.

If it were possible to create a Perl certification program that properly measured a candidate's proficiency with Perl, then the concept might gain some traction. However, since Perl is a group effort and not some shiny corporate product, and since measuring proficiency in Perl is a slippery thing, certification will likely never take hold.

In my opinion, that's a good thing -- I think certification gives HR folks a false sense of security that a candidate knows about the subject matter. Similarly, while a college or university degree reflects a certain level of accomplishment, it almost never tells you whether the student was an A student or just barely scraped by. And marks aren't always the measure of a man -- I remember a friend of mine, a Mechanical Engineer, who was doing a tuneup on his VW when a classmate came by, ranked #2 out of 180 in his class. "What's that?" "That's the battery." "And how about that?" "That's the coil." "And that?" "That's the alternator." He had absolutely no idea what was under the hood of a car. Yet his marks were amazing.

Hanging out on Perlmonks is a great way to learn Perl and to learn about the culture of developing Perl programs. Soak that up, write a pile of code (programs and modules), and that will take the place of any 'certification' that you'll ever need.