Hi Gary,
There were a lot of improvements made and new features added to the CRM 2011 product. Learning and certifying on this version of the product will probably put you in a better position to work with the next version.
Having said that, if you have never taken a Microsoft certification exam you might feel more comfortable taking an exam for a product that you know well.
Regardless of which exam you take, you want to be prepared. Here is the link to the Microsoft Learning site for CRM related exams:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/dynamics.aspx#tab2
You should spend some time looking over the requirements for the exams and using the preparation materials list provided to fill in any gaps in your knowledge.
Good luck!
Please don't hesitate to ask any further questions. If you found this post helpful or it answered your question, please do mark the post as helfpul and/or mark it as an answer.
Mike Corkery, MCT, MCPD, MCITP, MCSD, MSF, MCDBA, etc.
