IT certification reaches milestone
IT certification reaches milestone
The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) A+ certification will near the milestone of a half-million certified technicians by year end.
Launched as a computing industry initiative in 1993, A+ certification has become the benchmark of best practices for entry-level computer technicians. Courses that prepare students for the two A+ certification examinations, one on hardware and the other on operating systems, are taught in high schools,community colleges, universities, and commercial-training centres around the globe. Over its ten years, A+ certification has grown and matured, and has been appropriately modified to ensure its continuing relevance to the world of IT.
"Trainers and educators want their students to start with A+ because it is the recognized career-entry point," said Matthew Poyiadgi, regional director, UK and Scandinavia, CompTIA. "A+ provides the individual with a solid foundation for continuing education and on-the-job experience as well as a mark of professional achievement. Employers have told us that A+ benefits them by increasing customer satisfaction, simplifying recruiting and hiring, lowering training costs and providing measurable competency standards. These are some of the reasons contributing to the continued success of this important certification."
A+ validates that the successful candidate has the knowledge and skills necessary competently to install, build, configure, upgrade, troubleshoot and repair personal-computer hardware and operating systems, including troubleshooting basic network and internet connections.
As technology advances, CompTIA upgrades the content of A+ certification. The latest upgrade covered developments in personal-computer memory, bus,peripherals, wireless, and the ME and XP operating systems.
Industry involvement in A+ continued development and maintenance is strong,with multiple major industry players requiring or integrating the certification into their own training and certification tracks. These include, among others,CompuCom, Fujitsu Japan, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Ricoh and Xerox.
Carole Booty, CompTIA A+, IT support, at Swift Research, commented: "I have gone from hairdresser to IT support technician, and it is A+ certification that has helped me to do that. I really think that if I can change my career and learn about computers then anyone can if they really want to."
Roshan Hewavitarne, management-information systems support manager at the Prince's Trust, said: "I believe strongly that the development of staff is of paramount importance to any organization and wherever possible a recognized qualification always helps."
