Cicerone is a great thing. In France, we don't have anything to certify qualification of someone. So everyone can say he's a beer expert and no one can check that. I would like to see more cicerone test in Europe, it just started in UK but it would be awesome to have some in France, Italy, Spain, Germany and co.
I started as a beer blogger and I was lucky to live in Canada which allowed me to try to pass the test. But if you don't leave in north america, it is not really accessible. https://www.cicerone.org/us-en/users/thomas-barbera