Congratulations, you’ve earned an IT certification! You may think you’ve reached the end of your journey, but in fact, it’s just the beginning. To be the best IT pro you can be, you need to keep learning and stay on top of the latest trends and innovations. Continuing education can help you do that and, in turn, offer job security and competitive advantage and help you protect your organization from cyberattacks and technology outages. Luckily, CompTIA offers a number of opportunities for you to sharpen your skills.
What Does Certification Renewal Mean?
CompTIA certifications that are accredited by ISO/ANSI have a continuing education requirement, meaning that to keep your certification current, you need to earn a certain number of continuing education units (CEUs) every three years.
In other words, you need to complete activities related to the objectives of your certification, like attending webinars and conferences, publishing articles or blog posts, and teaching classes to prove that you still have the skills and knowledge you demonstrated when you took your exam.
If you do not earn enough CEUs during your certification’s three-year renewal cycle, your certification will expire, meaning the time, effort and money you invested will go to waste. If you apply for or have a job that requires certification, letting yours expire could put you in jeopardy of losing the job and stagnating in your career. If your certification expires and you want (or need) to regain it, you would have to re-register, re-take and re-pass the full certification exam. In other words, earning CEUs, either slowly across your renewal cycle or in one fell swoop, will put you ahead of the game and could save you time and money later.
Everyone Needs Continuing Education
But beyond earning CEUs and keeping your certification up to date, continuing education and professional development are critical to a successful IT career. We’ve all heard Newton’s law that states, “An object at rest stays at rest. An object in motion stays in motion.” When it comes to your career, the minute you stop learning is the minute you stop progressing. Continuing education is one way to stay in motion and maintain your career trajectory.
In IT specifically, if you don’t keep up with the current trends and threats, you could put your organization at risk. Things like IoT, cybersecurity and emerging tech bring new innovations every day. As an IT pro, you want to recommend the best, most up-to-date options to your organization to help it grow and mitigate risk. Professional development through continuing education helps you do this.
Keep Learning with CompTIA
Continuing your education doesn’t have to be painful. CompTIA offers a number of ways for you to increase your knowledge and sharpen your skills. There are the on-demand webinars that you can watch at your convenience and virtual and physical events that you can attend, like the annnual CompTIA Plus Conference. CompTIA also hosts live webinars on a multitude of different topics. These options all help you build your knowledge base, stay up to date on technology trends and become a more successful IT pro.
Continuing your education isn’t something to do once and check it off your list. It’s an ongoing task and a time commitment, but one that is well worth it. You’ll learn new skills and improve your career prospects and day-to-day work life in the process.
To keep up with all that CompTIA offers, current IT issues and career trends, sign up for our FREE e-newsletter.
