Microsoft Wants to Help You Get Job-Ready IT Skills
IT certification is successful enough as a business model that full-fledged certifications — backed by institutionally accredited exams and managed by professional associations or large, typically multinational IT firms — are not likely to vanish from the IT landscape any time soon. It takes time, resources, and patience to prepare for and pass a certification exam, however, and there is a pressing need across the IT spectrum for job-ready workers. That brings us to today's big news, which is that Microsoft has inaugurated a new tier of skills-based mini-certifications intended to rapidly teach and assess job-ready IT skills. The new Microsoft Applied Skills credentials will exist alongside Microsoft's more advanced certifications, but will have a narrower, more targeted focus on particular in-demand skills needed to address specific scenarios. There are nine Applied Skills credentials, and the cost to earn one is, "for a limited time," zero. Act fast, and you could lock down a professional credential, including online self-paced training, before the end of the year!
AWS Announces New Cloud Consultant Credential
Speaking of new not-quite-certification-level offerings from huge cloud computing corporations, Amazon Web Services wants to train cloud computing consultants to advise businesses about the commercial and competitive advantages of cloud computing. As noted in a new blog post announcing the AWS Cloud Technology Consultant Professional Certificate — available from AWS Training and Certification and Coursera — cloud consultants "help guide, shape, influence, and inform a company’s cloud strategy and execution plans. They work collaboratively with company decision makers on all areas of cloud computing, leading discussions, troubleshooting, and providing the operational, strategic, and technical direction they need." If you're looking for a ready-made cloud computing career available at a relative low price ($39/month), then you could do a lot worse.
Cisco Offers Tips for Passing CCIE Security Certification Exam
There are legendarily difficult certification exams, and then there are the expert-level CCIE certification exams attached to the top-tier of credentials in the certification program operated by computer networking titan Cisco. It takes a lot of preparation and persistence to pass a CCIE certification exam. That said, however, there are plenty of CCIE-certified individuals out there, and one of them wants to help you pass the CCIE Security exam. Zia Hussain describes his experience becoming CCIE Security-certified in a post the Cisco Learning blog, and offers advice to future exam candidates. This is a highly-specific blog post that sifts through the specific approach to the CCIE Security exam. As is often the case, however, there's good advice for just about anyone staring down a certification exam. If there's a certification exam in your future, they you're likely to find something here that will help you prepare.
IBM Offers Discount on Newly Refurbished Learning Subscription
We kicked off this week's Certification Watch with news about the launch of Microsoft's new Applied Skills credentials, which are being offered free of charge for a limited time. Over at the IBM Learning Blog, there's another limited time offer available to both energetic IT professionals and hungry would-be IT professionals alike. IBM Learning — newly rebranded from IBM Training and Skills — has overhauled and upgraded its learning subscription service. The new IBM Learning Subscription service is directly aligned with IBM's extensive library of professional IT certifications. The team at IBM Learning has also overhauled its interface (nothing says "everything old is new again" like a shiny new UI) and added to the scope of learning materials available. Until the end of December, you can save 15 percent when you start a new subscription. So if you needed an incentive to take your IT learning to the next level, well, there you go.
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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