Greetings all,
I'm interested in obtaining knowledge, courses, education, and expert information leading to a WebSphere certification.  My job is to monitor WebSphere servers and servants performance along with CICS using Omegamon, Omegaview, and TEPS. In order to move up and improve my value I'm looking to get some courses and hands on experience towards a certification. I'm targeting the conference at IBM's Impact or System Z university in October 2012. I'm only allowed time to self-study, or online e-learning at no more than $300 per online course. I'm a former IBMer so I'm aware of Redbooks. Which courses should I take? How do I get certification?  Do I need J2EE, JSP, or Java if i'm only going to be a systems analyst or systems programmer?

Thanks for your help!
Don