Hummm. I personnally don't feel like this.
If he only wants a one liner in his CV, then he could go for 1.4.
If he wants to work as a programmer, I think that he definitely has to go for 1.5
New technologies, books as well, use more and more 1.5 stuffs, like Annotations or Generics. (I'm thinking of EJB3 here).
If I would not be certified, I'd go for 1.5, 100%.
This may be tougher, but I don't think that getting certified is a matter of being easy or difficult.
It's a matter of getting a good understanding of new concepts.
Anyway, whatever version you go for, good luck