actually
Here they usually refer to them by the more generic CEUs (continuing education units).
The base information for IT does not change. Sure, we read the RFCs, recall the basic set-up, but we don't remember which bit goes where in this header, or where that bit goes in that trailer; that's what reference materials (well, OK, and standard classes) are for.
You don't need to care about any specifics of COBOL or RPG or SNOBOL or Spitbol or Algol or APL or Pascal or Python or Perl or PHP or Javascript or Java or Objective-C or C++ or the variant implementstions of "SQL" or even things like NIAM/ORM or state diagrams... except to remember which ones are (and always were) totally worthless for real-world work (I'm at my my nicer, gentler, most euphemistic and indirect best), and which ones are best for which kinds of work, and the kinds of notation and methods that work with each. You won't remember every specific aspect of the standard for every particular language, but, when working with each, you kind of sort of remember that this kind of way of doing things exists with most of them. You remember the alternatives so that, in a pinch, you can quickly try each one in turn, even though you may not precisely remember that with brand-name y version 5.4.7 the comma must go here instead of there.
The folks who try to nail down measures of productivity and such say that it generally takes 2 weeks to pick up a whole new programming language. Picking up a new paradigm -- which often uses old terms with new meanings as well as totally new terminology -- can take a month to become marginally productive and typically 18 months to reach mastery. That's not too far off the general rule of thumb that it requires 3 weeks to end a habit or start a new one, and 10K hours to develop top-tier expertise.
