IBM and Oracle Offering Deep Discounts on Certification
Certification savings abound as the tail end of August rolls past and September arrives. First up is IBM, which is offering interested individuals the chance to earn the IBM Certified Technical Advocate - Cloud v4 credential free of charge through Sept. 14. IBM Cloud Technical Advocate (which appears to be official IBM shorthand) is an associate tier certification that verifies the expertise needed to assess "client-specified requirements and goals" and help "facilitate an appropriate solution with IBM Cloud." Cloud computing is a red hot skill set, and IBM is a respected brand, so this is a nice opportunity. Also hoping to encourage certification candidates to get their heads in the cloud is Oracle, which is well known for its mastery of all things data, but has a robust cloud business as well. Through Sept. 30, Oracle is offering two free certification exam attempts via its Race to Certification challenge. The Race to Certification Challenge also includes free cloud training for applicable credentials, though interested parties will indeed need to race to get everything done is a little bit more than a month. There are a variety of terms and conditions that apply to both offers, so you'll want to check in at the applicable blog post before you get started on either offer.
CompTIA Touts Potential of IT Upskilling
Every organization, whether public or private, commercial or civic, has experienced the frustrations of attempting to add staff in a tight labor market. For many hiring managers, the solution is not to keep tossing a line into a fished-out employment pool, but to locate untapped potential in the ranks of those who are already on staff. Businesses and organizations inarguably know and value the people who work for them already: So why not help those people become the employees that you can't find outside the company? That practice generally falls under the label of "upskilling," and there's an excellent post that popped up on the official blog of IT industry association CompTIA at the end of last week that lays out how upskilling can solve staffing shortage problems. An upskilling mindset can even simplify hiring: If an organizations changes its hiring practice from bringing in people with particular skills to bringing in people with particular values — those that align with the organization's mission — then you get the right people from the start. Getting them into the "right" roles becomes simply a matter of teaching them new skills.
Microsoft Moves to "Open Book" Model for Select Certification Exams
The basic idea of asking certification candidates to take a knowledge-based exam, but cutting them off from any and all access to the internet (or, in an earlier era, books), has been under fire for some time now. Whether because it has heard the dissenting voices, or because of its own internal calculus, software colossus Microsoft took a revolutionary leap forward this week with the announcement that "all role-based and specialty exams in all languages" are being modified to allow certification candidates to access Microsoft Learn content while taking their exams. That's right: During the exam, you can refer to content available in Microsoft's vast library of IT training and education content. The change is planned to be incorporated by the middle of next month. (Presumably there are some exams that will not be affected, based on the specificity in the wording of the announcement.) Exam time will not be affected by the modification, meaning that exam candidates won't have the time to simply look up educational materials to help them answer every question. The hope is that candidates will treat the new feature more as a test-taking aid than as a license to blow off proper preparation. Did someone just let a giant genie out of a tiny bottle? Because it feels like a genie just got out of its bottle.
AI Is Not About to Replace Your IT Support Job
Don't fear the reaper, and don't worry about an AI system or AI-enabled resource taking over your IT support job ... yet. That's the opinion put forth in an article from the July issue of Certification Magazine that appeared at CertMag.com this week. Excitement about the potential for AI to do just about anything and everything that we are accustomed to using humans for has run rampant since the explosive introduction of ChatGPT at the end of 2022. Is the hype overblown? Maybe just a little. The article predicts that humans now employed as computer technicians will probably hand off some of their duties to AI in the near future. That doesn't mean that the technology required for AI to entirely replace human cognition or human assistance is just around the corner.
That's all for this edition of Certification Watch. Please keep your certification news and tips coming to the GoCertify News Editor.
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