Vendor cert levels

Hey Folks, I am trying to work out a strategy for vendor certification in our company. As a general rule, do you all fund employees certification and if so what kind of levels do you try to maintain as good practice? For example. NOC staff should be JNCIA and engineering JNCIP to JNCIE? Clearly certification does not usually reflect ability but it does help people feel valued and to maintain a basic level of competence. Thanks all, Isaac