After encountering a legion of outraged certified and soon-to-be certified individuals, which should have come as no surprise, CompTIA has backed off its plan to retroactively enact renewal requirements for CompTIA A+, Network+, and Security+ certification holders. Recertification will still be required – but not yet. For now, CompTIA says, “Regardless of when you became certified in CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+ or CompTIA Security+, you are certified for life.” If you earn one of these certifications by December 31, 2010, the same rule applies – it’s valid for life. Starting January 1, 2011, the 3-year renewal plan will take effect for all new CompTIA A+, Network+ or Security+ certifications earned. The prescription of recertification has still been delivered, but the medicine will go down much more easily this way.
Recently CompTIA announced that three of its certifications will begin having recertification requirements. Furthermore, the recertification policy doesn’t just apply to these certifications going forward, but also applies to those that have already been earned. While the value of adding a recertification requirement going forward is hard to argue against, is it really fair and necessary to apply it to certifications that are already hanging on the wall? It is certainly going to upset more than a few people who already hold those certifications, because now they will have to invest time and money that they hadn’t originally counted on or lose their certification.
Although I am not a fan of bait and switch tactics, in this case it makes perfect sense. One of the key points of certification is to demonstrate a valuable skill set, and that just doesn’t work if the skills date back to the computer stone age. For example, right now someone can be CompTIA A+ certified based on technology that is not even in use anymore, which makes it tricky for a potential employer to attach an accurate value to that designation. With this change, the employer will be guaranteed that CompTIA A+ (or Network+ or Security+) certified automatically means on reasonably current technology. On top of that, let’s face it, a little nudge now and then to help us keep our IT skills current is not a bad thing. Everyone knows they need to work to keep their technical skills up to date, but that can easily get pushed aside by other priorities. The hard deadlines and specific tasks laid out by these renewal requirements will give extra impetus to making professional development actually happen for individuals with these certifications.
So employers get more reliable certifications, computer professionals get an extra push to keep their skills updated, and CompTIA gets extra income from fees and testing as well as the benefits of having their certifications ISO accredited. Really, either recertification or expiration dates should have been in place from the beginning, and it is good that they now are. Hopefully they will be rolled out for additional CompTIA certifications in the future.
For more details of the CompTIA renewal policy, read the GoCertify article.
