Mostly false. Other areas have professional exams, but they're generally industry standards instead of given by the hiring company. This is more efficient if you're a candidate, since you only need to take the test once. (Or more if you don't pass the first time.) My house mate just got a professional engineer's certificate after being at work in the field for about five years.

Of course, if we had this in swe land, it would probably end up looking a lot like those silly certificate programs in soon-to-be-obsolete tech of yesteryear...