EVE New Citizens Q&A

All that lot plus navigation skills.

The usual minimum to fly them somewhat properly is lvl4 in capacitor related skills, everything that reduces the cap use of fitted modules and weapons to lvl4, add to that a T2 tank and a full flight of T2 drones. Naturally you need fitting skills to be able to fit all that or there really isn't any point in flying the ship yet, but the important part is that you make it fit one way or another. In the early stages this might mean using slightly less powerful, but easier to fit modules in some slots to make things fit. Preferably with minimum use of fitting modules though, since losing entire module slots to fitting modules usually significantly reduces your overall performance.

If you're thinking of PvP requirements, I would add T2 guns to that list as a must, since the utility of T2 ammo makes them a necessity for all turret ships. It's also where the armor compensation skills come in use. In PvE you can afford to rely on active tanking and hardeners exclusively, so there is little need to train the compensation skills early on.

The things is though, that if the ship does the job you bought it for it's good enough. After that you just train skills so you do more damage, fly faster, tank more damage(or the same with less modules), have more capacitor and use less capacitor. Any increase in perfomance is a good thing to have and you should try to get the relevant skills to lvl5, but that's a good thing to have instead of a necessary thing.

Certificates are good guidelines for people who don't know the skill system or all the proper skills yet, but it's just a guideluine and a tool to introduce people to the system. There are some odd advice it can give, so don't follow them blindly. If you think you know better than the certificates suggest, you propably do and should do what you think is the better choice.